The high voltage transmission lines in North America looks like this. If a three phase balanced circuit uses three voltage sources, would that mean that this pole in figure one is carrying the currents of 6 three phase voltage sources?
When I look at the transmission lines, some of them has only three "hands" (I do not know the exact term) like the one in figure two , and some of them six like the one in figure one. I always wonder what exactly is the reason behind it.
Another question that I have is that, if you count the cables in the picture, some "hands" have three cables and some have four cables attached to it. Why? The three cables make sense to me because that means the cables are carrying the current corresponding to three voltage sources that are 120 degrees out of phase from each other. But what about the ones with four cables?