Quote Originally Posted by Tony_Montana
Your response was:"The inductance will be dependent on the spacing between the wires, and if they are already touching, or spaced with something, twisting them will not alter the spacing."Jn

Did a little bit of research on this subject, and your statement might not be true. I ran cross an article (sorry I lost the link, but I will keep looking) mentioning that twisted wires will have lower inductance than parallel cables (given the same spacing between two conductors).

The article mentioned that the close magnetic coupling between the wires due to twisting [them] will reduces the inductance of the cable, and that this is why twisted pairs have lower inductance than parallel wires.

I see if I can find that link
Cool. It wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.....

Hope you can find the link..it would be interesting reading..bet the article is incorrect, though..hee hee...

Short explanation:

Given real life situ's, as in you don't double the amount of wire used when you twist them, the dipole field produced by the wire does not get any bigger or smaller. Since the inductance of the pair is the result of that dipole field, if it does not change, neither does the inductance. (inductance is the relation between energy stored, and current).

If you REALLY twist them, the cross sectional angle of the wire will begin to get nuts, and there will be a solenoidal component of the field as a result of the angle of the wire. But, keep in mind, it's mate is in the other direction, and the result is local cancellation of the solenoid. And, at the same time, the dipole field normal to the center of axis is lowering at the same time because of that angle.

So, I stand by my assertion..

OH...almost forgot...I tested this using #24, #18, and #16zip, as well as a #10 twisted pair. The inductance did not change regardless of the twist pitch I used.

So, if you twisted the wire to make it shorter, then, yes, it would make the inductance per useable length lower. My assertion stands only for reasonable twists..

Cheers, John