ELIF: Why is voltage at the end of a circuit 0?
In: Other
This is a pretty big simplification, but you can think of voltage between two points like this:
*”How interested would the electrons be in flowing from point A to point B, provided they are given a way to do so?”*
The voltage depends on a lot of different factors. As an example: Is it easy to get there? I.e. low resistance? Then the voltage increases, because the electrons are lazy and why would they take a harder path to get where they are going.
Usually, we’re being told you always have to close a circuit for electrons to flow anywhere. A broken circuit is, quite literally, one that won’t work. Really though, this is a quirk in the semantics. Electrons flow from the cathode to the anode, meaning the electrons flow from the – to the + . This if it as some kind of race, where – is the start and + is the finish line.
(Sidenote: this is opposite the current. The electrons flow ***against*** the current.)
The reason electron flow to the anode is because they are attracted to the positive charges there. Once they get there, to the end of the circuit, they have no reason to go anywhere else.
So, if you would ask the electron “How interested are you in going somewhere else?” they would reply with “Not at all interested”. If you ask them “What is the voltage?”, they’d say “0.”
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