I saw a few youtube videos explaining that electricity doesn’t actually travel through wires but directly to the bulb from the battery. I understood their explanation. But now I have a doubt. Since energy flows directly to the bulb, can I shield the bulb in some way such that the circuit is complete and even then the bulb doesn’t light up?
In: Physics
Could you explain what you mean better? Electricity does in fact travel through the wires.
In D.C. (direct current) electrons are “pushed” out of the “push” side of the battery and flow through the copper wire hopping from copper atom to copper atom. They go into the bulb where some of their energy is used and some keeps going, then they return to the other side of the battery, the “pull” side where they collect. When all of the “extra” electrons from the push side of the battery have collected on the pull side of the battery the battery is used up and dead. Unless it is a rechargeable battery in which case the recharging moves all of the electrons back to the starting side.
If there isn’t a full circuit from the “pushing” side to the “pulling” side of the battery you get a traffic jam and no electrons move.
In A.C. (alternating current) there are two wires which is why you have two prongs on the AC plug. AC alternates pushing electrons down one wire and pulling from the other wire, then switching to pulling from the first wire and pushing from the other wire. This switch happens 60 times per second, back and forth.
Each time it pushes, for a brief moment 1/60 of a second, electrons are pushed into the copper wire and they push all of the electrons in front of them all the way to the pull side of the plug (all the way back to the power company’s transformer actually). Like dominos bumping each other the push goes all the way through. Then it switches and electrons are pushed back in the other direction. Since the same electrons are going back and forth it doesn’t collect up and run out like a battery.
Your light bulb only cares that electrons are moving through it, it doesn’t care if they are flowing through and out the other side, or if electrons are moving in one direction then in the other direction. Either way moving electrons gives it the energy it needs to work.
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