1. heat, electric This term has been given to the heat produced by the passage of a current of electricity through a conductor. It is really electrically produced heat, the above term being a misnomer.
The rise of temperature produced in a cylindrical conductor by a current depends upon the diameter of the conductor and on the current. The length of the wire has only the indirect connection that the current will depend upon the resistance and consequently upon its length.
The quantity of heat produced in a conductor by a current is in gram-degree C. units equal to the product of the current, by the electro-motive force or potential difference maintained between the ends of the wire, by .24.
The cube of the diameter of a wire for a given rise of temperature produced in such conductor by a current is equal approximately to the product of the square of the current, by the specific resistance (q. v.) of the material of the conductor, by .000391, the whole divided by the desired temperature in centigrade units.
Definitions of heat, electric
