Yes, there is a transfer of electrons from one place to another. It's not to the thing that does work, but through the thing that does work.
With a battery (DC/direct current), there's a surplus of electrons available at the negative end, a deficit at the positive end. The electrons flow through a circuit (from - to +) to perform work.
With AC/alternating current, the electrons flow in one direction, then the reverse direction several times per second. The purpose of this is to push energy further down transmission lines with less loss. Pushing DC from a plant to everyone's houses is very lossy.
Do electrons have mass? Yes. Does the circuit or device increase in mass when current is involved? No. You're actually not introducing additional electrons into the circuitry. The conductors and semiconductors already have electrons on the outsides of their atoms. We introduced an electron at one end, it hops onto an atom, pushing an existing electron over to the next atom and so on. It's the movement that produces "energy" and allows work to be performed.
Strictly speaking, you can hold extra electrons for short periods of time in capacitors, but the mass is so small as to be negligible.
Right, so, in an AC circuit, there is a movement of information without a net movement of the same elektrons, right? And it's (at least partially) the same electrons that jiggle left to right, right? So is it fair to say that in a DC circuit, there is movement of mass (although net, it balances out, because what goes in out on the left comes in on the right); whereas in an AC circuit, information is transferred just through the movement of the elektrons, but not through the elektrons themselves?
With a battery (DC/direct current), there's a surplus of electrons available at the negative end, a deficit at the positive end. The electrons flow through a circuit (from - to +) to perform work.
With AC/alternating current, the electrons flow in one direction, then the reverse direction several times per second. The purpose of this is to push energy further down transmission lines with less loss. Pushing DC from a plant to everyone's houses is very lossy.
Do electrons have mass? Yes. Does the circuit or device increase in mass when current is involved? No. You're actually not introducing additional electrons into the circuitry. The conductors and semiconductors already have electrons on the outsides of their atoms. We introduced an electron at one end, it hops onto an atom, pushing an existing electron over to the next atom and so on. It's the movement that produces "energy" and allows work to be performed.
Strictly speaking, you can hold extra electrons for short periods of time in capacitors, but the mass is so small as to be negligible.