6 Comments
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Allan's avatar

Well it would be better grounded in reality than an 'economics for physicists' series!

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Bernardo Mendonca's avatar

Always a great read! It reminded me of when they transported a 250-tonne transformer back from my hometown in Brazil, and the whole ordeal became a block party...

(https://g1.globo.com/pe/pernambuco/noticia/2025/04/29/novo-transformador-gigante-de-250-toneladas-transportado-em-pe.ghtml)

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Alex Leemon's avatar

This is awesome!

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Allan's avatar

Nice one Alex. A good followup would be how do powerlines actually transfer power (hint: not via electrons flowing through the conductors) and are magnetic fields real (hint: no, they're just a fiction engineers use to make the maths simpler).

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Alex Leemon's avatar

Are we starting a 'physics for economists series'?

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Glenne Drover's avatar

Allan, you are probably aware of the youtube attempts at explaining how energy is moved, and how electrons don't really travel from a Generator to a Customer, and is energy travelling in the wire or the air...

my favourites are the original in 2021 by Veritasium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIhgxav9LY

and the very humourous response by ElectroBOOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iph500cPK28

and then the joint one where ElectroBOOM and Veritasium together discuss the remaining issues at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-WCZ8PkrK0

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