Which effect increases as frequency rises, concerning the distribution of AC current within a conductor?

The skin effect is the phenomenon where alternating current (AC) tends to flow near the surface of a conductor rather than uniformly throughout its entire cross-section. As the frequency of the AC increases, the skin effect becomes more pronounced, which means a greater proportion of the current flows close to the surface. This happens because higher frequencies create a greater self-inductive effect, which forces the current to concentrate near the surface to minimize the opposing magnetic fields generated inside the conductor.

In the context of effective conductor utilization, understanding the skin effect is essential for designing cables and conductors that operate efficiently at higher frequencies, such as in radio frequency applications. As a result, the skin depth (the depth at which the current density falls to 1/e of its value at the surface) decreases with increasing frequency, thereby reinforcing the skin effect as a critical consideration for high-frequency current distribution in conductors.

The other options, while related to electrical principles, do not directly address the distribution of AC current in conductors as frequency changes. Inductive kickback refers to voltage spikes caused by the collapse of magnetic fields in inductors, capacitive coupling relates to how capacitors interact with AC signals, and hysteresis loss involves energy loss during the magnetization and demagnetization of