I know that electricity will take the path of least resistance.
Say we have a body of water. This water begins flowing down the path of least resistance and forms a river. However, the water eventually reaches a point where it can no longer flow, and it stops there.
Now in terms of electricity, if I touch an electrical source and also am grounded, it will flow through me and hurt. However, if I touch a source, but I am insulated from the ground, it will not flow & not hurt me.
I would like to think electricity is like water in terms of meandering through and finding the best path, but if electricity flows through and cannot complete a circuit, nothing happens. Or if electricity does not flow like the water would (in search of that path), how would it know that path/circuit is complete?
In: Physics
There are electrons everywhere along that path, even when it’s not following.
Let’s take your water example, but now think the entire world is covered in a really shallow lake. Like a few centimeter/inch of water.
Now, the water don’t move much. Because all the lake is level. Yet, if there is suddenly a new cavern that open somewhere, water will fall into it, then around that water will follow towards it to replace the list content. If there is any bump on the ground that make the lake a lot shallower, then the water there will not see much flow, most of it will follow around. This happen until the cavern is getting filled with water from a nearby source, the rest of the terrain simply get little flow.
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