: if you disconnect a power cable, where does the electricity that is still in the cable go?

Question

: if you disconnect a power cable, where does the electricity that is still in the cable go?

In: 40

Answer 1

Electricity is the movement or pressure in the cable.

To electricity, the outside air is a barrier to that pressure (high / infinite resistance).

When you disconnect the power cable from its free-flowing metal cable, and present it only open-air with no other “easy” exit, it just stops flowing. The electricity isn’t a “thing”, it doesn’t need to go anywhere… it’s the movement of power through the cable. That stops when you break the circuit because the air is a barrier.

Electricity doesn’t work like a solid object.

Metal is “open space” to it and it can move through that easily.

Air is “a solid barrier” to it and it basically can’t move through it.