What Does Wire Gage Have to Do with a Wires Electrical Properties?
The most significant impact of Wire Gage upon the electrical properties of a wire is upon the wire’s resistance. Any given wire material (copper, steel, aluminum, et cetera) has resistance, and DC resistance is inversely proportional to the circular mil area. If our wire is copper, that 40 AWG conductor, with a 9.61 area, has a resistance of 1080 ohms per 1000 feet; the 10 AWG, with approximately 1000 times the area, has a resistance of just about exactly one ohm. Resistance is the property of a conductor which describes how current flowing through the conductor will be converted to heat. In a very low resistance conductor, relatively little energy will be lost to heat; as resistance increases, more and more will be converted to heat. How this affects electrical circuits varies with the type of circuit involved, however, and we’ll get to that in a bit.
