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I’ve recently started reading up on electricity and slightly confused about this. I live in Europe and our electricity is 230 volts 50HZ. I understand the two conductor wires being phase/live and neutral and how on our alternating current the electrons move back and forward slightly depending on what the voltage is doing. Can someone explain to me this though. When +230 volts goes through the live this electromotive Force is pushing the free electrons around the circuit but at the other part of the cycle when at -230 volts are the electrons being pulled back? I know neutral is generally grounded somewhere to complete the circuit and allow current to flow so nothing can be pushing electrons back on the negative side of the cycle. Hopefully someone can explain.

Ramah85
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    I don't know how to properly answer your question, but the fact that one of the two wires is connected to Earth and called "neutral" is completely arbitrary. Both of the wires connect to a transformer somewhere outside your house, and it's the action of the transformer that creates the potential difference that makes the current flow, in a loop---from the transformer, through one wire to your appliance, through your appliance and the the other wire, back to the transformer. The connection to Earth is just a safety feature--the system actually could function without it. – Solomon Slow Jul 17 '19 at 13:03

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There's no real difference between "pushed" and "pulled" here. At one time, one wire is positive, at higher potential and the other is negative, at lower potential so that electrons move from the negative (repelled) to positive (attracted).

At some other time, the ends swap and the motion is the other way. But it's still due to the same thing: Electrons repelled by negative, attracted by positive, and moving toward the higher potential.

Bob Jacobsen
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I understand the two conductor wires being phase/live and neutral and how on our alternating current the electrons move back and forward slightly depending on what the voltage is doing.

"Depending on how much current the voltage is generating" might be a better way of stating it.

When +230 volts goes through the live this electromotive force is pushing the free electrons around the circuit but at the other part of the cycle when at -230 volts are the electrons being pulled back?

Yes.

I know neutral is generally grounded somewhere to complete the circuit and allow current to flow so nothing can be pushing electrons back on the negative side of the cycle.

That doesn't matter since (in the absence of an earth fault elsewhere on the circuit) no current flows through the N - E connection. So whatever comes and goes on the live must also come and go on the neutral.

Think of it like a chain drive. The chain links represent the mobile charge carriers. The movement of the drive wheel back and forward is felt immediately at the driven end even though the links have barely moved. The electro-magnetic wave in the conductor travels at close to the speed of light. The mobile charge carriers are moving at very small fractions of a millimeter per second.

Transistor
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  • Thanks for the responses. I have read your comments and studied videos and can visualise exactly what’s happening now. – Ramah85 Jul 17 '19 at 16:59