The Biggest Misconception About Electricity

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Strong rec jerf · 2023-09 · on “How the Most Useless Branch of Math Could Save Your Life”

The video in question for reference: [LINK] Interestingly, when I saw that I figured this channel for a goner because he was going to turn to the darkside, but quite contrary to expectations I feel like his channel has actually blossomed since then. His older videos are fine, but often just explaining concepts that you can find a lot of other explanations on, but some of his recent videos have rocked the boat even among physicists and IMHO he was ultimately proved to be correct for them. I particularly point at his videos about how nobody has measured the one-way speed of light ( [LINK] ), which was well-known among people very very deep in the field of relativity but not very well known out

Strong rec lchengify · 2024-01 · on “Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]”

Only tangentially related, but I highly recommend watching Veritasium's YouTube video on electricity if you're curious as to how Maxwell's fields create the current / amp abstractions in EE [1]. It's a common misconception that electrons or current transfer energy. In reality it's the electric field that exists between the wires that is doing the heavy lifting, the electrons in the wires are just controlling the field. This has always confused me and I was very irritated when I first learned electromagnetics about how rote all the initial learnings are. I wish more work was put earlier into making everything relate back to Maxwell's equations to make it make sense. [1] [this video]

Recommends 123pie123 · 2022-01 · on “5.5 mm in 1.25 nanoseconds”

this is an interesting video (to me anyway!!) on the speed of electrons vs fields The Big Misconception About Electricity.. [this video]

Recommends poorman · 2024-06 · on “Wireless power transfer system achieves 270-kilowatt charge”

I dove deep into this topic after reading your post and discovered something fascinating: electricity doesn't actually flow through wires in the conventional way I was taught. It's more about the electromagnetic field around the wire. This video explains it really well: [this video]

Recommends H8crilA · 2025-02 · on “But good sir, what is electricity?”

The problem with (or the advantage of) the water flowing analogy, or even more broadly the discrete element model, is that it explains reality good enough to be used in most practical situations. Schematics are ubiquitous, yes they are "fake", but they are also usually "correct enough". Kind of like the incorrect Bohr's model of electrons orbiting the nucleus actually does explain the emission spectra (up to a point). But there is an accessible video that explains electricity pretty well. Veritasium - The Big Misconception About Electricity: [this video] There is one commonly used concept that requires understanding electricity correctly, and not just as a combination of waterhoses and gizmos. It

Recommends djsamseng · 2025-02 · on “But good sir, what is electricity?”

There's also the field theory of electricity: [this video] It’s an eye opening alternative explanation to the electrons flowing like a chain theory of this article.

Recommends leonidasrup · 2026-07 · on “A.I. Companies Are Recruiting Electricians and Carpenters by the Thousands”

Good intrpduction are Veritasium videos: "How Electricity Actually Works" [LINK] "The Biggest Misconception About Electricity" [this video]

Cites VHRanger · 2021-12 · on “ADSL works over wet string (2017)”

That's not exactly correct. Electrons don't flow through wires - there's a one-way flow of the ambient electrons around the wire from the field created. See here: [this video]