Why do some old wires (e.g. headphones, charging cables) work when put in some positions but not others?
In: Technology
As they get older, they wear out and the connection becomes looser. It’s like plugging in a new cable almost but not quite all the way.
Wear, tear, and rust.
Electricity is finicky – if there is no good connection on the connector then it cannot flow. If the wire is severed, a gap in the circuit, it is referred as an open circuit. If the wire touches an alternate path to ground (that has less resistance) it is referred as a short (taking a short-cut around the circuitry)
Sometimes we can twist the cables just right that a good connection is made and then it works and other times it doesn’t connect correctly
Every cable you have is actually numerous small metal wires bundled together. The issue you’ve described is called a short in a cable, which means some or all of these wires have broken, so the connection is broken when they aren’t correctly positioned.
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