Is it similar to the waves on the surface of an ocean, where the particles go 2 steps forward and 1 step back in waves? If so, what makes it do that? Why would that be used instead of DC current?
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Think of an electrical device as being like a waterwheel on a river. It’s not using up any of the water, it’s just extracting energy from the current.
So we don’t actually *need* the electrons to go anywhere, we just need them to be in motion. If we push all the electrons in a wire forward, an electrical device attached to part of the wire where the millionth electron is located can extract energy from that electron’s movement. If we then switch directions and pull all the electrons in the wire backward, the device can extract energy from that same electron as it’s moving the other way. Then it can extract more energy from that same electron as we push it forward again, and so on.
As for what makes the electrons do that, well, it’s a machine called an “alternator”. Like, we’re generating electricity that way intentionally.
The reason we’re doing that it because it allows the end user to control the electric pressure. If we were only pushing on electrons in the wire and never pulling on them, then a user who opened a channel would receive a steady stream of electrons and have to put them somewhere. But since we’re pushing the electrons in and then pulling them back, the user can attach a device called a “transformer” that gentles their movements: they can turn “electron gets pushed *way* in and then gets pulled *way* out” into “electron gets pushed a *tiny* bit in and then gets pulled a *tiny* bit out”.
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