Electricity doesn’t travel through wires

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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

13 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Electricity is the flow of electrons in a direction.  Electrons are negative and move towards positive charges.  One atom passes it’s free electron to the next in a chain so to speak.  Electricity does not flow if there is no circuit.  That’s what a light switch does.  

I believe the last thing you mentioned would be a dead short before the bulb in question made of a material with less resistance than the filament bulb or LED circuit.  Electricity moves in the path of least resistance generally.

There’s …. A LOT to electricity.  So, electricity does flow across wires to the load or draw in that the electrons are moving but the copper atoms themselves are not moving.  I hope this makes sense. 

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