TW Hook up wire - Stranded type

Stranded wire is composed of a bundle of small-gauge wires to make a larger conductor, which may optionally be insulated. Stranded wire is more flexible than a solid strand of the same total gauge. Stranded conductors are commonly used for electrical applications carrying small signals, such as computer mouse cables, and for power cables between a movable appliance and its power source; for example, sweepers, table lamps, powered hand tools, welding electrode cables, mining machines and trailing machine cables.

At high frequencies, current travels near the surface of the wire because of the skin effect, resulting in increased power loss in the wire. Stranded wire might seem to reduce this effect, since the total surface area of the strands is greater than the surface area of the equivalent solid wire, but in fact a simple stranded wire will in fact have worse skin effect than a solid wire, because of its increased average resistivity, due to inclusion of air gaps within the wire.