Re: Inductive coupling - please settle argument ...

Technically, there will be both under any circumstances; it's 
just that usually one or the other is practically negligible.
Think of the wires as an antennas - a very small fraction of
a wavelength at 50~60 hz, but still an antenna. The kind of 
matching you'd have to do to connect it to a receiver would
tell you whether you're getting more inductive or capacitive
coupleng. :-)

Cheers!
Rich

Jimmy wrote:
> 
> "Jimmy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > "Zymurgy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > All,
> > >
> > > There's a bit of a debate going on over in uk.d-i-y about ac line
> > > (mains) voltage being induced into unterminated adjacent wires.
> > >
> > > We've split into 2 camps, some of us are saying that the inductive
> > > coupling of the AC is inducing a low AC current into the unterminated
> > > (i.e. 'floating') line.
> > >
> > > The others are saying this is capacitive coupling due to the metres of
> > > dielectric that separate the two wires.
> > >
> > > Can one of the AC Current theorists on here, please debunk either or
> > > both theories with some reasonably technical mumbo jumbo to back it
> > > up.
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance
> > >
> > > Paul.
> >
> > I am an electronic tech by trade and recently the company I work for has
> > insisted that we electronic types learn something about power generation
> and
> > air conditioning, so it is off to school I go. In our equipment lab the
> > phenomenom that you mention is demonstrated by measuring voltage on open
> > circuited wires  run adjacent to wires that have voltage applied to them.
> > The voltage on the open circuit was nearly as high as the one s connected
> to
> > an AC source when mesured with a High impedance voltmeter. The gurus who
> > teach the coures attribute this primarily to capacitive coupling without
> > giving any real explanation as to why capacitance and not inductive though
> I
> > am sure both play a part.
> >
> >
> Hadnt really thought abought it that much till now but with the open wires
> the primary method of coupling would have to capacitive.