does copper make electricity stronger? If you have a thicker copper wire, but the electricity output stays the same, will it some how give off more energy?(I'm not talking about a house outlet) (suppose a devise is giving off a constant amount of electricity)thanks
Thicker copper wire is used for loads that require a higher voltage to drive it. If you use too thin of a cable then you could burn the insulation or destroy the cable. They have specific ratings and there are a lot of household standards out there (i.e. 18-2 for speaker wire) There is something you should look into called the skin effect, which means that at higher frequencies less of the wire is being used. The electricity tends to flow just on the outer portion of the wire, so it doesn't matter how thick the wire is because it isn't being used. In fact, for a lot of high frequency inductors it helps to have a hollow copper wire for better inductance and Q factor. Not really relevant but it's good to know. Copper is a good conductor so you will get a small amount of loss through the wire. There are better conductors out there, I believe gold is a better conductor than copper but it's too expensive so people don't use it for much.
Copper is a cloud of electrons around a rigid frame work. Electricity is a group of displaced charges, the energy in electricity is the energy required to displace the charges in the first place. When the charges travel through a wire the use up some of the energy. If the wire is thicker they use up less energy, as the move back to the place they belong. So no the copper doesn't make electricity stronger.
Copper doesn't make electricity stronger. However, copper wire does have resistance, so bigger wire makes the voltage drop across the wire smaller.
From conservation of energy, no matter what you connect between a source and a load, you cannot get more energy to the load than you extract from the source. You CAN get higher voltage at a load than the source provides, if you have the proper hardware. A simple copper wire won't do it. For AC, it can be done with a step-up transformer, which will trade current for voltage. All that using copper does, is supply a more open pipeline for the current to flow. More open than air would otherwise be, or than just about any other metal in common construction use would otherwise be. Copper itself isn't a 100% perfect conductor (it isn't a 100% open pipe), it still has resistance. This is why you need a BIGGER copper wire to carry more electric current, or to carry the current a longer distance without significant voltage drop across the wire. Once you've properly sized the wire, so that it won't melt its insulation from internal heating, and so its own resistive voltage drop is as inconsequential to the operation of the load as needed, there really is no reason to upsize any larger than you need. Although, there is the practicality of stocking different wire types. (Note: higher gauge number means thinner wire). If most of a project will be installed with #10 gauge wire, and a small portion of the project is able to be installed with #14 gauge wire, there may be no reason to even buy any #14 guage wire, and just install #10 gauge wire in its place. Much more practical to not need to buy 500 ft of #14 gauge wire just to install 20 feet of it, when you are already installing 400 feet of #10 gauge wire. You can go with installing 420 ft of #10 gauge wire instead, all of which comes from the 500 ft roll.
Due to the conservation of energy, their is no way you can get 21V from a 20V outlet. However, copper is very conductive, so energy loss is minimal. For example, If you have a device that is plugged into a 20V outlet, and it has Iron wire in it, less than 20V will reach it. Let's say 18V for argument's sake. If you strip out all the Iron and put in copper, much more will reach. Let's say 19.5V. So, while you are not getting more energy, more of is making it to your device. This is why changing kinds of wire in electronics is not smart; you'll burn it out.
