me and my friend were doing a circuit challenge and we did the same circuit but she used thicker wires. does it make a difference?
Thicker wires = larger path for electrons to flow through. If the wire was thin, not as many electrons go through it. But a bigger wire means the electrons flow faster and the overall system receives and gives off energy faster.
It depends on what the resistance of the rest of the circuit was. The resistance of relatively short lengths of really thin wire would be less than 2 ohms, probably less than 1 ohm. Thicker wire would be maybe 1/4 ohm. So only if the circuit's components were in the neighborhood of 25 ohms or less, would the difference in thin and thick wires have a real significant affect on the circuit.
Well that depends upon your friends circuit. But, I can only add to what has already been said by saying this: - Using thick wires is traditionally associated with passing large currents in a circuit. However, if you use low voltages with thin pieces of wire (especially if it's long piece) then that can have a significant effect upon the circuit you are trying to supply. This is because the wire has resistance of its own that may well me nearly the same as that of the circuit you are trying to supply. All of which means that there may be a considerable voltage drop across the wire and less for the circuit you are trying to 'feed'. So, ironically, although thick wires are traditionally used for high current circuits they may also be found to in low voltage circuit passing very little current; the point being that we want a small a voltage drop as possible to appear across the wire. To illustate using a example, suppose that you are having a garden party or BBQ and decide to have some disco music outside. You set up the speakers outside while keeping the stereo in the house. You know that the voltages and currents are quite low so you think that more of the same cable that is already connected to the speakers would be fine. You run out the lengths to the speakers and switch on only to find that the volume is way too low even with the volume knob wound right up! What has happened? The resistance of the cable with the lengths that you are using is now comparable to the speaker impedance and this means that there is a voltage drop between the ends of the cable meaning less for your speakers. The solution is to use really thick cable, like mains cable capable of taking 10's of amps; it's not the current rating of the cable that you require but its low resistance.
