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
I don’t understand the conclusion you’re presenting from the video, admittedly; electrons flowing through the bulb is what makes it light up. For an incandescent bulb, this is because this movement creates heat in the filament due to resistance to this flow, while an LED creates light by electrons jumping a band gap between the materials.
In direct current (DC), the electrons flow as a stream, unidirectionally travelling from one end of the battery to the other due to the voltage gradient/difference in charge. In alternating current (AC), there’s a cyclic shift of the direction of the electrons, meaning the electrons in the battery may never actually travel through the entire wire, but instead push and pull their neighbors through the entire system, which can be used to do work or still power things like lights.
Latest Answers