I’ve always heard that electricity follows the shortest path – for instance, lightning will use your body for a conduit if you’re the tallest thing around. How exactly does that work?
In: Planetary Science
Imagine if I have a long chain, like a ship anchor chain, and it’s all just bundled up in a messy pile. This is like a bunch of electrical charge.
Now imagine I pull on one end of the chain, and run very far. I’m pulling the chain from a hundred yards away, but looking at the pile, chain links are coming out of it and moving toward me. How does each link of the chain “know” to follow where I’m pulling? It’s the same principle; all the interactions are happening locally, but it’s following a chain, with the pull being the voltage source.
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