Actually, I was being the *only* path. Stupid 15 year old me decided to take one of those electric flyswatters apart, and I didn't make sure to discharge it beforehand. I took the batteries out, sure, but when I was disconnecting the capacitor, I accidentally connected the circuit and my arms flew apart and the backs of both of my hands hit the wall behind me. It wasn't too painful, to be honest, but still. Lesson learned.
@@ComradePhoenix I removed a plug from a socket from the prongs when I was a kid, my hand was the short circuit path. good lesson learned, it was a mistake because I left the plug dangling instead of inserting it all the way. always put it all the way, lesson learned.
The equivilent resistance of loads in parallel being less does feel a bit counter intuitive. However, as resistance gets smaller, then the system draws more current. So, the whole system having less resistance, and the drawing more current than a single element does make sense.
Also, even over those short distances, the line resistance comes into play. The other saying, that is the flipside of "electricity takes the path of least resistance" is "electricity will take the shortest path to source/ground"
@@corydiehl764 , alternatively, think about it more intuitively in terms of _conductance,_ which is the reciprocal of resistance. When you have parallel paths, each with some conductance, the overall conductance is just the sum of the individual conductances, because any of the paths can be taken. It's the same as if you combined all of the paths into a single path. Ultimately, that's why 1/R = Σᵢ (1/Rᵢ).
Even as an electrical engineer who knew all this I still feel like I learned something. You explain it so well that even though I know I get some deeper intuitive understanding. The equation I didn't know and you explained it really well.
I wonder if there’s a way to cancel the wavelengths of light in such a way that we can have a shadow flashlight. A flashlight of “dark light”. A laser type device that cancels out all wavelengths of light that it radiates upon. Casting a shadow as dark as a black hole.
You are really good at taking complex topics and presenting them so that anyone can understand them, quite often creating "Ah ha!" moments by viewers like me. Great stuff! 👍
Even considering this circuit, (where the load on it is potentially greater than the sum of the individual paths (voltage drops,)) why would the path of least resistance theory not be even more apparent in this example?
Since I'm an electrician, there was nothing new here for me, still you provide such an enjoyable content it was really nice to hear about this again from you.
@@tanner1985 I dunno about that. I had my education in electric schools, I wouldn't know if they teach it in normal school, but I know a bunch of normal people not knowing these. Sorry about it then.
The conclusion would be that yes, current takes the path of least resistance, but that doesn’t imply it takes *only* the path of least resistance (which is the impression the phrase gives). As an additional side note, there’s a circuit known as a “current divider” which shows that in resistors (and impedances in AC circuits) connected in parallel, the current of the source flows through *all* resistors, not just through the smallest resistance. Furthermore it shows the current through any resistor is inversely proportional to its resistance, what we’d expect from Ohm’s law. The only time where the current would only flow through the path of least resistance is if such resistance is exactly 0 ohms (an ideal wire). - The short description of the del operator you gave was clever! And the explanation of the equation of conservation of charge was excellent. Electromagnetic theory was quite difficult for me and my friends since equations aren’t always explained in depth, only their proof/derivation is shown. The assumption about KCL is hardly ever stated and people end up think it is always valid. Thanks for pointing that out! In transmission lines, current going in doesn’t equal current going out. - Side note 2: the video is too good and it covers more than just correcting “path of least resistance”. Maybe you could change it to “Current does NOT take the path of least resistance | When KCL is not true” or something like that 🤔
@@Mac90820 , if the subject is electricity, "current" means "electrons." "High current" means "lots of electrons." Now how would you describe "prefer," "prefers" or "preference" regarding the flow of electrical current?
I love how you really loosely (and beautifully) summarized my beginning electrical engineering courses. Divergence is so cool! We always used the logic of "path of least resistance" to inherently mean "current likes to tend towards less resistant paths, but if there is a closed loop, then current will still flow."
A good point with the electrical lines is that the electronics circuits are DC and flow in one direction whereas the high powered lines are using AC current which flows back and forth.
All capacitors are flux capacitors. Electric flux is the total of an electric field accumulated throughout a given area. Capacitors have an electric field across the insulating gap between the plates. The property of capacitance as it depends on the geometry of the capacitor is calculated through the concept of electric flux.
I love this guy lol. Third year Electrical engineering major and i come to your videos to obtain more intuitivity like or visual understanding of the material. Making the basics easier makes the harder stuff easier as well!
I became an EE specifically because my high school teachers failed to explain exactly this concept properly. I remember asking my science teacher "if electricity follows the path of least resistance, then why is it dangerous to touch a power line with a ladder? Shouldn't It all flow through the low resistance ladder?". He basically shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know. It wasn't until well into my second year that it all finally clicked and I recognized all the misconceptions I'd learned. It's hard to shake poorly learned concepts out of your head. I still encounter journeyman electricians who don't properly understand Kirchoffs' or Ohm's laws.
The simplifications are important to teach basic concepts. Sometimes, I wonder if it's good to just say that "this is a simplification, actually it's more complicated, but we won't get into that now". I love that Nick clearly says when things are a simplification.
You are seriously awesome. Presentation, the pace, topics,clarity,funny comic timing,script,graphics,experiment, ugh finally a great science professer on youtube! Thank you!
I really love that you show the formulas and explain what they say. Not being able to read (comprehend) formulas seems to be one of the biggest hurdles in scientific literacy. People seriously under-estimate how easier can your everyday life be, if you know how to read, use and design scientific formulas + apply some basic algebra to them. If you reach the level of being able to enter formulas into excel, you can calculate pretty much anything that doesn't involve landing people on the moon. It's one of the trickiest skills to teach. Children don't wanna learn it, because it's useless for problems they are facing in their daily lives. Adults don't wanna learn it, because they are settled in using math-less heuristic/intuitive approaches to solve their problems. You should see the utter horror and confusion in people's faces, when you suggest calculating the solution to a complex problem instead of guesstimating it.
Best explanations of basic electric principles I’ve ever seen! Just finished E&M this year and this would have been so helpful for when I was starting out.
When i first came to this channel 2 years ago... I felt this channel was only recommend for high school students... Now the explain is so lucid that any science crazy can grasp it.... Keep you the good work Sir👏👏... You are helping many people like us... Love from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
I'm currently studying for a physics exam at university and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the continuity equation (the one with the density of charge and the divergence) being explained so smoothly and simple after studying it's mathematical proof! Very well done!
when you learn physics, you have thousands of questions, and google doesn't help, there isn't much info, so these visualized explanations are priceless
Awesome as always! I am an electrical engineer and I never heard such a neat and to the point explanation as yours! Great job and thanks for the content!
"Science is the method by which we become less wrong about the world." - I forget the source of the quote, but it's ever true. Science makes being wrong into an opportunity, rather than a shame. :)
thanks for this video!! I trully admire how complicated concepts become really intuitive with your practical animations, simplifications and that finest sense of humor and puns.
I always laughed at that. When I design even a simple circuit, it takes ALL paths...inversely proportional to resistance. If it didn't, your house would only have one light or appliance working at any one time...assuming it was the one with the lowest resistance in the power block. And the lowest power block resistance in the entire circuit of the power plant...
An average of all paths is seen by the battery. But a dead short would put all the lights out, each path must have resistance for it to work. An old model railroad trick, put a car tail light bulb in series with the track. If something metal falls on the track and shorts it out, the bulb will light up, and prevent a dead short. It barely lights at all while the train is running.
@@alphagt62 Even a dead short keeps all paths powered--it's just that the short is of extremely low resistance. Usually it draws more power than the source can easily supply, leaving little for alternate paths and the voltage sags severely. In a perfect world, with a perfect supply, the lights/devices would stay on. But that dead short would get very, very hot...
Once I posted a negative comment in this section. Well, I am sorry. Now that you have really broadened my mind enough to write it, I must say I appreciate your work a lot. Every time I hear you say sth absolutely wrong, an outward lie, a word trick of some sort, I finish watching a bit off, but some time passes and some things I learn... and a brainwave happens. Always, like in a flash, I remember that you had expressed the same thought that I now produced in my mind and it was me who was on the wrong side of the fence. For that reason, I think this is one of the best channels on the whole Censor-me (because the Medieval is in the vogue) Tube. You do broaden the mind. Good job. Thanks.
I love the way how Nick explains his *NERD SENTENCES* to his clones so they can understand each and every aspects of those, hoping our teachers were the same! 😀😀
Two observations; 1) Are kids watching this? 120V circuit with all those clip leads laying around? In this day and age, I would water that down to low voltage LEDs to account for today’s uninitiated. 2) The video is essentially demonstrating current flow. But the current ripples in the illustration show electron flow or current flow moving in the direction from positive to negative. It’s the other way around. Well, you did mention charge flow a few times, and that would suffice in engineering circles, but this lesson targets basic electronics students. Thanks for the math lesson, though. I always learn from your show. Love it.
I feel like it was kinda straight forward, it's same like with water, if water flows through a pipe, and this pipe leads to few other pipes, then the water going in will be the same amount as water coming out. So idk why it was nightmare :P
Yeah, highschool was pretty straightforward although not very well explained, later this made much more sense and became a really useful tool for the short time I needed it :s
Thank you for doing a better job of explaining Kirchhoff’s law than my university lecturer did! Also probably the best segue to a VPN promotion that I’ve seen! Well done.
It is an Amazing video that combines common sense with scientific knowledge. You rectified the "current takes the path of least resistance" to "More current takes the path of least resistance". Great job Nick👍
Y E S !!!!!! This is the misconception that held me up for such a long time when I was trying to get myself dug into electrical engineering. The way I phrase it is "Current PREFERS the path of least resistance." At least in my head it leaves things completely open for current to also take other closed paths, but the one with least resistance is going to be the one preferred by electric current.
Brilliant, this is an aspect not covered often on YT. Cheers! I appreciate there's more varied background music (experiment segment) since last I watched the channel. The Missus should get an award for 'bulbing' (:
Nice to see you got a sponsor! Also the "fork on the road" joke was nice, especially as you chose to roll with the silverware analogy, instead of forcing the clone to abandon his intuition and reframe the it in terms of streets and crossroads
3 роки тому
I once found a pitchfork in the road. I didn't know what to do.
7:16 - When dealing with high frequencies, we actually need to take the wave nature of the EM field into account. The rule of thumb is - if the line (wire) is longer than 5 wavelengths (at the operating frequency), you can't make the steady state assumption any more. I don't know enough of high voltage electrical engineering to know if there is some other effect there as well. And, of course, there is the entire field of transient or AC analysis - which gives you strange things like current flowing "through" a capacitor. (It's not current flowing through a capacitor, it's the charge density changing over time.)
Right. The point I was making there was that Kirchhoff's current law doesn't apply in extreme situations like that. As you've said, we have better rules for those cases.
In high voltage applications like transmission lines, there is actually a tiny "loss" of electric charge due to "partial discharge" aka. corona discharge.
Over 18 years as a wheeled vehicle mechanic, and as someone who does soldering projects as a hobby (and arduinos, etc.), while I totally understood what you are saying, I feel like I have just made the assumption that people would automatically realize this and kind of viewed it as common sense. I'm sure it probably isn't, but sometimes I overlook stuff that seems obvious when I have been using it for a long time. I have a very high interest in Energy / Electricity and have focused most of my college papers on related topics whenever given the opportunity. I'm not sure what this phenomenon is called, but I have noticed that it tends to happen to people when they spend a lot of time studying something, have always done things a specific way, or are working in particular fields. I didn't even realize how often I make this kind of mistake until I started studying Korean while living in South Korea and was shocked by how quickly I would forget that some of my friends that were with me could not read the signs or advertisements around us. I would be like "OOO that place has Udon, let's go!" and my friend would be looking around all confused and be like "Where?" I'd be like "Over there!" and point at the sign. Then they would get mad at me and say, "Where!?" again. I'd be like "Right there!" as if it was clear as day. Then either they would realize I was pointing at something written in Korean or I would realize they can't read the Korean and feel kind of dumb for somehow not thinking about it. Then I would think about how not very long ago I couldn't read it either and I would get all weirded out. Late at night, when trying to sleep, I'd wake up abruptly and wonder how many other things do I know that I just assume other people know and how much does it affect the quality of my life? How many things are other people just assuming that I know in the same kind of manner? These are the types of deep thoughts that keep me up at night... Anyways, on a different topic, I love your videos. You are a great teacher. I'm not currently in any classes where I need to know this information, but I watch all of your videos for fun. What I would really like to see is if you had any videos on Calculus or any recommendations for people who make Calculus fun. I'm not in Calculus right now, but I need to take the Class eventually. My current degree plan is more Statistics based (Geosciences), but I'm taking up a minor in Mathematics because I can't get into an Engineering program without at least Calculus I.
*"I have just made the assumption that people would automatically realize this and kind of viewed it as common sense."* I can understand making that assumption. I made the same assumption my first year of classroom teaching, but I very quickly learned that it's not common sense. Thankfully, the voltages were extremely low, so no one got hurt. Someone who has no experience working with electricity simply isn't going to bother thinking it through. The dark side of human mental efficiency is mental laziness. *"What I would really like to see is if you had any videos on Calculus or any recommendations for people who make Calculus fun."* I mention calculus in my videos sometimes, when it's relevant. I don't dive very deep into it though. If want that deeper interesting look, I can't recommend 3blue1brown enough: ua-cam.com/play/PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53DwVRMYO3t5Yr.html
@@ScienceAsylum the last three years, I have been working in education, but as a training developer not an instructor. The material I work with is for wheeled vehicle mechanics. I have fixed a lot of terrible looking PowerPoints, test materials, and worked on getting things corrected for accreditation. I have been quite surprised to find out how little some of the students know. They come from all different backgrounds though. Some of them come to the schoolhouse already knowing how to rebuild a transmission, while others cannot tell the difference between a screwdriver and a ratchet. I don't get to work with the students a whole lot, but some of the material we worked on from the ground up and it was a lot of fun watching the students go through the try outs. What was not a lot of fun was noticing something on the PowerPoint out of alignment during the tryouts that we all missed when creating the materials and knowing that I can't fix it until after the class is over... I'd probably realize even more things that the students don't know if I worked with them directly more often although the instructors are pretty good at letting us know when something will be way too difficult for the students. Some of the training materials we initially got were at a very advanced level because it is designed for all the levels including "Subject Matter Experts" and we had to parse out what things will probably confuse students who just learned what a screwdriver is about 10 weeks ago. There were some things that were obvious to remove, but the instructors slashed a lot more material from what we had designed because it was still too advanced for entry level students. I think it was even harder for me to decide what to cut because I have shelves of capacitors, diodes, and other electronic components at home because I like building things with them. Most of the people I work with can troubleshoot components, but at our level of work we typically replace the entire component and there is never a reason to solder anything... We have troubleshooting paths to follow that tell you what to check and when to replace something. The paths don't tell you why the multimeter should read 24V, just that if it doesn't read 24V replace whatever item it calls for. A mechanic with a solid understanding of electricity can understand why it should read 24V, but if you follow the troubleshooting paths correctly, you should still be able to fix the problem. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to struggle with electricity. They just don't understand it. I try to push the importance of understanding to people though because if you don't understand it, you just become a parts changer. I've seen a lot of people change random parts over the years that didn't fix the problem because they didn't follow the troubleshooting path and made assumptions or they didn't know how to read a wiring diagram.
@@kraziecatclady Yeah, I understand that struggle. One downside to teaching on UA-cam instead of a classroom is that I don't get the feedback from people until _after_ the video is up. In the classroom, someone could ask a question in the middle of an explanation and I could tailor the rest of the explanation to the audience. I don't get to do that here. All I can do is guess what they know and don't know already. Sometimes I get that wrong 🤷♂
We all know if this was some other channel and that bulb was not working, we would have for sure heard a "KABOOM BOOM". (Phaye chik chik phaye chik chik phaaye, phaaye chik chik - UNIBROW)
A good way to conceptualize this is to take two straws and drink something with them. Obviously the drink will flow up both straws at the same rate. Now pinch one of them. You'll immediately notice more fluid going up the one you didn't pinch, since it has no 'resistance.' But there's still fluid going up both straws, until you pinch one so hard it no longer looks like a remotely viable path for the drink to flow up. This can also apply to the swirly straws you see in places like Disney Land when talking about inductors. Physically speaking, they're not a good analogy when describing the mechanisms of travel. But conceptually speaking, it will teach you about the rule of adding time-dependence to the circuit with inductors.
Sucking on two straws while pinching one = increasing the 'resistance' = it does mean *current takes the path of least resistance* The harder you press on one of the straws, the higher its resistance. Press equally hard on the other straw - you equalize the flow(s). Increase the suction/potential - and the current increases. Decrease the suction/potential, the current decreases - have two paths and the fluid equalizes into a flow in both straws (at different rates, as he shows in the video). The fluid isn't in both straws at once, it gets sucked up only one straw - and flows in that one. Electrons are quantifiable point-like structures that repel each other and are attracted to the source of potential(difference). I think Nick is wrong on this. Suck on a 100 meter drinking straw, no fluid will flow due to vapor pressure and gravity (equal to 'infinite' resistance, though there is a path) - making 9:02 statement 'some current takes each and every path' nonsense.
Just like always the animations and the explanations make me rewrite my whole understanding even though I already know them 🤣 , you are my favorite youtuber ♥
So many things to say... 1. Any channel that can overcome my jealousy of its presentation quality with pure appreciation for its existence deserves a nod! 2. Some viewers were understandably concerned by the low safety standards of the alligator-clip demo. I was about to defend it on the basis of the isolation transformer, but after freezing and zooming in, I realized it's not an isotrans at all, but a circuit breaker with a coin jammed in its bus beak to make contact. 😆 OMG, I'd like to say "priceless" but there's a coin involved. Anyhow, at least there shouldn't (necessarily) be a fire. In lieu of an isolation transformer may I suggest a GFCI? They have downstream terminals that are protected, no need to plug into the receptacle. 3. At first I was a little disappointed in the actual message of the video compared with some of the other mind-blowers I've seen on the channel. Having grown up with an electronics lab in the basement I don't ever recall thinking that _all_ the current followed the path of least resistance. But I quickly came around. The clarification is well worth making. That it is accompanied by solid theoretical material pushes it way over the top. Water analogies are often useful - though almost as often, problemmatic - but I've likened this to poking holes in a water tank. All other things being equal, the highest flow rate comes through the biggest hole (highest conductance) but it comes through all of them, and the more holes there are, the higher is the total flow. 4. Instructors in my past all pronounced Kirchhoff as "Ker-Choff." When I uttered this in the presence of a Swiss electrician he had a good laugh. "It's 'Care-hhchoff'" he says, where the "hhch" part is that gutteral sound like bringing up a minor hairball. Now I can't speak his name without making it cartoonishly over the top. I think your "Ker-coff" is a happy medium for English speakers. 6. All in all, bravo, another winner.
An appropriate clarification of a blanket statement about the relationship between resistance and electrical current that was accepted by students for ages without an understanding of its true meaning. Excellent analogy with water flowing through streams of unequal channel widths.
Another great vid. TBH, I always thought the path of least resistance was when we talk about lightning (for example) travelling through air (or the ground)... I mean the copper wired circuit of all your bulbs presents a path of (much) lesser R than the air gap between the croc-clip electrodes. Nice to be reminded it applies to all currents, in all cases.
I would love to see a video about the similarities between heat flow, electricity, and fluid flow...we just use the analogies to solve physics problems, but it feels a little...wrong
Analogies are mere models. Models have limitations. Analogies seem to "fail" only when the limitations of the models used are not explicitly presented beforehand.
Those models are actually super useful and helped me out a lot when I studied physics. You do have to understand their limitations though. Like turbulence in hydraulic flow: it doesn't have an equivalent in electric flow so that's where the analogy breaks down.
@@vinlebo88 eddy currents also happen in hydraulic flow, but when the flow is laminar, not when it is turbulent, so you can't compare that to electrical eddy's
The only channel that really helps me understanding Maxwell’s equations and electromagnetism better and better throughout these videos. Thank you so much!
I love how you explained the divergence in that simple way! It's something that is explained in physics classes, but between the lines because MATH AND FORMALISM FIRST! and necessarily you lost the physical meaning behind it
I got the impression the professors teaching it didn’t have the best understanding. If you watch MIT lectures you will see they know what they are doing and they can explain in the simplest terms.
You are the greatest scientific communicator on UA-cam. You are my go-to science helper for when I need to convert the messy picture in my head into a solid conceptual understanding. Excellent work. I noticed that my other comment got your attention (but not a heart lol) and I just wanted to balance out my 'complaint' about the VPN ad read with a more positive comment.
Actually BJTs (bipolar junction transistors) are devices that we use current to control them but we don't use them so much any more. Modern devices have complimentary CMOS (MOSFETS) that we use VOLTAGE to control them. So field effects are more important than current. Awesome videos ! I am really happy that i can for one time add to the conversation.
One of my favorite ytube subscriptions. I hate the math tho, but the visual breakdowns helps. I like Mr clone too...always asking questions and getting tossed around in space. Lol
Dang, another great physics video to torment my physics classes! Easy way to approach Conservation Principles like those in Kirchhoff laws is to just keep in mind that "Thou shalt keep track of thy voltages (loop rule) and thou shalt keep track of thy currents (junction rule).
honestly, i had never seen people being taught this before, i had always been taught that more current takes the path of less resistance, maybe it is because here we start studying electricity at a later grade, so that much oversimplification is not needed. But this video taught me a lot about Kirchoff's laws. Thanks.
Holy smokes this is a cool experiment!! Thanks my Crazy Science Sensei! I'm too much of a wuss to try electronics experiments at home, but I may start...
The setup I had is extremely dangerous with all that exposed metal and wall socket power, but I'm a trained professional. I'd recommend starting with battery powered circuits and hobby bulbs.
Yes, please don't do this with mains electricity. It's far too dangerous even if you know what you are doing. It will work perfectly fine with a battery-powered circuit and will give you exactly the same result. @@ScienceAsylum - Nick, I really wish you had done this with 24V DC - you could have used the same light bulbs, and it would have been far less dangerous.
You are right about the bird feeling an electric current. For humans in the business this is called "touch and step voltage" and it is indeed dangereous. There is a mesh network of conductors below electric utilities facilities to adress this problem along with insulated boots in people feet. Every time you see a cautionnary message on a fence to stay away it is mainly for that matter... Cows are susceptible to these currents during a storm because wet + no boots = disaster...
The statement is a frequent source of confusion amongst laymen and students alike. To give another example: Until I was about 15, the common statement of Newton's third law, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, seemed nonsensical to me; how can something be both equal _and_ opposite at the same time? Of course, the source of confusion was that no-one had clarified to me that they meant equal magnitude and opposite direction, and I was thinking in terms of vectors already, so the notion of two force vectors being equal (and thus having the same magnitude _and_ direction) and being opposite made no sense to me.
7:10 Any circuit structure which has a size that is comparable to the wavelength of the the AC signal flowing through it will exhibit charge density fluctuations. This is very common in high frequency circuits such as coax cables or radio antennas.
It's interesting, this is one of those things that I've always wondered about. In school they tell you that current takes the path of least resistance; but if that was literally the case; then only one light bulb will light up, in a parallel circuit. I'm really glad to finally have that question answered after all these years. Thank you for such a comprehensive video.
Here's an extra thought. In that circuit, with 4 bulbs in parallel, there is 120V (or so) advertorial that circuit. Each bulb still has 120V across it, regardless of whether or not the other bulbs are present. Each bulb then passes current according only to its own resistance.
As a electronic engineer I thank you for this video. Have seen too many people in all kinds of forums say "current takes the path of least resistance" which is wrong on so many levels.
When I was learning about Kirchhoff’s current law, I kept waiting to hear what his previous law might have been.
😂
Kirchoff was initially working on a potential law, but it never amounted to anything.
Wonder if someone will locate a missing book from Kirchhoff and we can learn his future laws.
@@bumbixp kirchoff's "current" law, what was his previous? It's a joke. :)
@@lj516 'potencial' law is also a joke :)
Any one who has been shocked has experienced being an additional path
Actually, I was being the *only* path.
Stupid 15 year old me decided to take one of those electric flyswatters apart, and I didn't make sure to discharge it beforehand. I took the batteries out, sure, but when I was disconnecting the capacitor, I accidentally connected the circuit and my arms flew apart and the backs of both of my hands hit the wall behind me.
It wasn't too painful, to be honest, but still. Lesson learned.
@@ComradePhoenix I removed a plug from a socket from the prongs when I was a kid, my hand was the short circuit path. good lesson learned, it was a mistake because I left the plug dangling instead of inserting it all the way.
always put it all the way, lesson learned.
The path that can be explained, is not the real path.
@@AndreSamosir Actually, I think the real path can be explained, but you won't be able to tell how fast it was going.
@@enjerth78 ahaha nvm, was a random 3am thought; it's the most famous quote from Tao Te Ching, the primary book of Taoism
Going through ALL the bulbs has actually less resistance than going through one...
The equivilent resistance of loads in parallel being less does feel a bit counter intuitive.
However, as resistance gets smaller, then the system draws more current. So, the whole system having less resistance, and the drawing more current than a single element does make sense.
Cmilkau, nailed.
Also, even over those short distances, the line resistance comes into play. The other saying, that is the flipside of "electricity takes the path of least resistance" is "electricity will take the shortest path to source/ground"
@@corydiehl764 , alternatively, think about it more intuitively in terms of _conductance,_ which is the reciprocal of resistance. When you have parallel paths, each with some conductance, the overall conductance is just the sum of the individual conductances, because any of the paths can be taken. It's the same as if you combined all of the paths into a single path. Ultimately, that's why 1/R = Σᵢ (1/Rᵢ).
@@JivanPal conductance makes it much more intuitive as an interpretation
Even as an electrical engineer who knew all this I still feel like I learned something. You explain it so well that even though I know I get some deeper intuitive understanding. The equation I didn't know and you explained it really well.
Thanks 🤓
I am planning to take the course, can you tell me about work done by EE in their core jobs
I laughed way too hard when she said "One of your lightbulbs isn't bulbing" Love the content by the way
I wonder if there’s a way to cancel the wavelengths of light in such a way that we can have a shadow flashlight.
A flashlight of “dark light”.
A laser type device that cancels out all wavelengths of light that it radiates upon. Casting a shadow as dark as a black hole.
@@Bassotronics destructive interference
@ *hriutik Sawant*
Yup! Eggsactly
Sounds like something that our friend AvE might say! Like... "Needs more chooch!"
"One of your lightbulbs isn't bulbing" is a statement I never knew I loved.
You are really good at taking complex topics and presenting them so that anyone can understand them, quite often creating "Ah ha!" moments by viewers like me. Great stuff! 👍
The basis of geophysical imaging. The “path of least repulsion” is probably a more accurate language representation of the actual physical phenomena.
Wait until he brings up the AC-circuits. Then it becomes COMPLEX.
It's stunning he does it on every video.
Even considering this circuit, (where the load on it is potentially greater than the sum of the individual paths (voltage drops,)) why would the path of least resistance theory not be even more apparent in this example?
he really is. it's a pretty special gift, and it's wonderful that UA-cam allows him to share it w the world
From my observations I've learned electricity always takes the path that costs me the most money.
So true. Broken supply neutral in a split-phase 240/120 system comes to mind.
😂
Ahah! And it really sounds like a law
Law of Acceleration of Debits?!! 😂😂😂
Since I'm an electrician, there was nothing new here for me, still you provide such an enjoyable content it was really nice to hear about this again from you.
There was REALLY nothing new here, also for normal people. Luckily it was the only episode I felt unnecessary.
@@tanner1985 I dunno about that. I had my education in electric schools, I wouldn't know if they teach it in normal school, but I know a bunch of normal people not knowing these.
Sorry about it then.
True, but I still enjoyed having someone phrase it differently
Genuinely my favorite science communicator. Makes it enjoyable without acting like we're all dumb babies. Easy to digest, easy to understand.
Your wire management is giving me shocks
I will see my self out
😂
The next time you want to post something like this? Resist.
I don't know. I found it rather... _enlightening._
These puns are so bad I wanna comit connecting ampermeter in parallel to the circuit.
😂 (me wrapped up like a coil laughing)
The conclusion would be that yes, current takes the path of least resistance, but that doesn’t imply it takes *only* the path of least resistance (which is the impression the phrase gives).
As an additional side note, there’s a circuit known as a “current divider” which shows that in resistors (and impedances in AC circuits) connected in parallel, the current of the source flows through *all* resistors, not just through the smallest resistance. Furthermore it shows the current through any resistor is inversely proportional to its resistance, what we’d expect from Ohm’s law. The only time where the current would only flow through the path of least resistance is if such resistance is exactly 0 ohms (an ideal wire).
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The short description of the del operator you gave was clever!
And the explanation of the equation of conservation of charge was excellent. Electromagnetic theory was quite difficult for me and my friends since equations aren’t always explained in depth, only their proof/derivation is shown.
The assumption about KCL is hardly ever stated and people end up think it is always valid. Thanks for pointing that out! In transmission lines, current going in doesn’t equal current going out.
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Side note 2: the video is too good and it covers more than just correcting “path of least resistance”. Maybe you could change it to “Current does NOT take the path of least resistance | When KCL is not true” or something like that 🤔
5:31 Nerd Clone: “Actually, J represents current density, not current”
Thank you, nerd clone. You make the world a better place. 💕
Improved version: "Current PREFERS the path of least resistance, but takes them all anyway"
MORE current takes the path of least resistance
Current takes all path scaling with conductance, how hard is it really?
@ My dude, what the fuck was that sentence?
@@Mac90820 , if the subject is electricity, "current" means "electrons." "High current" means "lots of electrons."
Now how would you describe "prefer," "prefers" or "preference" regarding the flow of electrical current?
@ I’d explain it the same way I would regarding electron placement within an atom. Statistical likelihood = ‘preference’
Im studying to become an electrical engineer, as soon as this showed up I clicked!
Same brother, same
Me too
I have my 2nd semester examination from 19th this month.. I'm also doing B.Tech in Electrical Engineering
Get an internship, forget about your gpa. I wish I had done that. Magna Cum Laude doesn’t trump experience. I promise
@@juanhurtado2679 same 😪
I love how you really loosely (and beautifully) summarized my beginning electrical engineering courses. Divergence is so cool!
We always used the logic of "path of least resistance" to inherently mean "current likes to tend towards less resistant paths, but if there is a closed loop, then current will still flow."
A good point with the electrical lines is that the electronics circuits are DC and flow in one direction whereas the high powered lines are using AC current which flows back and forth.
You're calling that a "junction," but it's clearly the primary component of a flux capacitor.
All capacitors are flux capacitors. Electric flux is the total of an electric field accumulated throughout a given area. Capacitors have an electric field across the insulating gap between the plates. The property of capacitance as it depends on the geometry of the capacitor is calculated through the concept of electric flux.
I love this guy lol. Third year Electrical engineering major and i come to your videos to obtain more intuitivity like or visual understanding of the material. Making the basics easier makes the harder stuff easier as well!
He was my Physics 1 teacher and I am now a civil engineer because I loved it so much.
I became an EE specifically because my high school teachers failed to explain exactly this concept properly. I remember asking my science teacher "if electricity follows the path of least resistance, then why is it dangerous to touch a power line with a ladder? Shouldn't It all flow through the low resistance ladder?". He basically shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know.
It wasn't until well into my second year that it all finally clicked and I recognized all the misconceptions I'd learned. It's hard to shake poorly learned concepts out of your head. I still encounter journeyman electricians who don't properly understand Kirchoffs' or Ohm's laws.
I'm glad you had better teachers later on.
The simplifications are important to teach basic concepts. Sometimes, I wonder if it's good to just say that "this is a simplification, actually it's more complicated, but we won't get into that now".
I love that Nick clearly says when things are a simplification.
@@aveekbh Yes, Nick avoids friction.
@@michaelfrankel8082 He follows the path of least resistance.
Originally came to this channel for help in my physics class, now I just watch to have my mind blown and learn things I'd never considered before.
It's cool that you explain formulas in your videos, makes science seem much less intimidating.
Thanks! I think it's important. If I'm going to talk about an equation for more than 1-2 seconds, I need to explain it.
You are seriously awesome. Presentation, the pace, topics,clarity,funny comic timing,script,graphics,experiment, ugh finally a great science professer on youtube! Thank you!
It was amazing😍😍 especially that derivation of Kirchoffs law from conservation of charge equation and visualisation...
I really love that you show the formulas and explain what they say. Not being able to read (comprehend) formulas seems to be one of the biggest hurdles in scientific literacy. People seriously under-estimate how easier can your everyday life be, if you know how to read, use and design scientific formulas + apply some basic algebra to them. If you reach the level of being able to enter formulas into excel, you can calculate pretty much anything that doesn't involve landing people on the moon.
It's one of the trickiest skills to teach. Children don't wanna learn it, because it's useless for problems they are facing in their daily lives. Adults don't wanna learn it, because they are settled in using math-less heuristic/intuitive approaches to solve their problems. You should see the utter horror and confusion in people's faces, when you suggest calculating the solution to a complex problem instead of guesstimating it.
Best explanations of basic electric principles I’ve ever seen! Just finished E&M this year and this would have been so helpful for when I was starting out.
When i first came to this channel 2 years ago... I felt this channel was only recommend for high school students... Now the explain is so lucid that any science crazy can grasp it.... Keep you the good work Sir👏👏... You are helping many people like us... Love from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
I'm currently studying for a physics exam at university and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the continuity equation (the one with the density of charge and the divergence) being explained so smoothly and simple after studying it's mathematical proof! Very well done!
Thanks! 🤓
Seriously love your videos. Your ability to break this stuff down and make it digestible is such a gift. Keep em comin!
I hereby declare Nick to be our lord and saviour for clearing up perhaps the most annoying oversimplifications of physics.
All hail the conservation of energy
One of the few channels I give a thumbs up to before I even press play. Great job as always!
Dream Collab: *Veritasium, Vsauce, Electroboom, Science Asylum!*
Looking forward to it! 😍
when you learn physics, you have thousands of questions, and google doesn't help, there isn't much info, so these visualized explanations are priceless
That was a great explanation of a seemingly confusing equation.
indeed
Awesome as always! I am an electrical engineer and I never heard such a neat and to the point explanation as yours! Great job and thanks for the content!
I think my favorite thing about your videos is how you break down the equations. Seriously, I can’t appreciate it enough. Great video like always!
Thanks. Happy to help 🤓
Put a bare wire in parallel with the bulbs and see how much goes thru the bulbs ;)
I find I often end up finding out how I'm wrong when I watch this channel. Not mad about it.
"Science is the method by which we become less wrong about the world." - I forget the source of the quote, but it's ever true. Science makes being wrong into an opportunity, rather than a shame. :)
That was one smooth segue into the sponsor message.
haha i came here to say the same thing :)
The best explanation of the nabla operator and divergence! Thank you! And super video - really clearly and well explained!
thanks for this video!! I trully admire how complicated concepts become really intuitive with your practical animations, simplifications and that finest sense of humor and puns.
I always laughed at that. When I design even a simple circuit, it takes ALL paths...inversely proportional to resistance. If it didn't, your house would only have one light or appliance working at any one time...assuming it was the one with the lowest resistance in the power block. And the lowest power block resistance in the entire circuit of the power plant...
Nobody interpreted it to mean "not all paths" though.
@@culwin common folk interpret like that all the times...
@@monad_tcp I don't think they do. If they did, a simple analogy of water would make it obvious and they would never interpret it like that again.
An average of all paths is seen by the battery. But a dead short would put all the lights out, each path must have resistance for it to work. An old model railroad trick, put a car tail light bulb in series with the track. If something metal falls on the track and shorts it out, the bulb will light up, and prevent a dead short. It barely lights at all while the train is running.
@@alphagt62 Even a dead short keeps all paths powered--it's just that the short is of extremely low resistance. Usually it draws more power than the source can easily supply, leaving little for alternate paths and the voltage sags severely. In a perfect world, with a perfect supply, the lights/devices would stay on. But that dead short would get very, very hot...
I love how properly you take the viewer from the perceptual to the conceptual level of understanding. Well done, thank you very much!
Thanks 🤓. Glad you appreciate it.
Once I posted a negative comment in this section. Well, I am sorry. Now that you have really broadened my mind enough to write it, I must say I appreciate your work a lot. Every time I hear you say sth absolutely wrong, an outward lie, a word trick of some sort, I finish watching a bit off, but some time passes and some things I learn... and a brainwave happens. Always, like in a flash, I remember that you had expressed the same thought that I now produced in my mind and it was me who was on the wrong side of the fence. For that reason, I think this is one of the best channels on the whole Censor-me (because the Medieval is in the vogue) Tube. You do broaden the mind. Good job. Thanks.
Saying stuff like this is difficult. Your effort is acknowledged.
Well, in a video about electronics, a negative comment would be pretty on-topic...
"One of your light bulbs isn't... bulbing"
I love the way how Nick explains his *NERD SENTENCES* to his clones so they can understand each and every aspects of those, hoping our teachers were the same! 😀😀
Two observations; 1) Are kids watching this? 120V circuit with all those clip leads laying around? In this day and age, I would water that down to low voltage LEDs to account for today’s uninitiated. 2) The video is essentially demonstrating current flow. But the current ripples in the illustration show electron flow or current flow moving in the direction from positive to negative. It’s the other way around. Well, you did mention charge flow a few times, and that would suffice in engineering circles, but this lesson targets basic electronics students. Thanks for the math lesson, though. I always learn from your show. Love it.
Kirchhoff's law was a high school nightmare of mine. This is the first time I felt like I understood it to some extent.
I feel like it was kinda straight forward, it's same like with water, if water flows through a pipe, and this pipe leads to few other pipes, then the water going in will be the same amount as water coming out. So idk why it was nightmare :P
A lot can depend on how well or badly it was explained.
@@PinkeySuavo Its Nick who brought this water pipe analogy. Solving circuits straight from Kirchhoff's formulation is going to give u a headache.
Yeah, highschool was pretty straightforward although not very well explained, later this made much more sense and became a really useful tool for the short time I needed it :s
Some of these obscure "rules", "laws" etc are just basic common sense disguised behind jargon
Thank you for doing a better job of explaining Kirchhoff’s law than my university lecturer did! Also probably the best segue to a VPN promotion that I’ve seen! Well done.
I like how the thumbnail asks the question and the title answers it
It is an Amazing video that combines common sense with scientific knowledge. You rectified the "current takes the path of least resistance" to "More current takes the path of least resistance". Great job Nick👍
Why is does his videos feel so great and counter intuitive
Y E S !!!!!! This is the misconception that held me up for such a long time when I was trying to get myself dug into electrical engineering. The way I phrase it is "Current PREFERS the path of least resistance." At least in my head it leaves things completely open for current to also take other closed paths, but the one with least resistance is going to be the one preferred by electric current.
Yo, this is such a good video. There’s something in here for everyone. And it’s so easy to understand.
Brilliant, this is an aspect not covered often on YT. Cheers!
I appreciate there's more varied background music (experiment segment) since last I watched the channel.
The Missus should get an award for 'bulbing'
(:
Nice to see you got a sponsor!
Also the "fork on the road" joke was nice, especially as you chose to roll with the silverware analogy, instead of forcing the clone to abandon his intuition and reframe the it in terms of streets and crossroads
I once found a pitchfork in the road. I didn't know what to do.
7:16 - When dealing with high frequencies, we actually need to take the wave nature of the EM field into account. The rule of thumb is - if the line (wire) is longer than 5 wavelengths (at the operating frequency), you can't make the steady state assumption any more.
I don't know enough of high voltage electrical engineering to know if there is some other effect there as well.
And, of course, there is the entire field of transient or AC analysis - which gives you strange things like current flowing "through" a capacitor. (It's not current flowing through a capacitor, it's the charge density changing over time.)
Right. The point I was making there was that Kirchhoff's current law doesn't apply in extreme situations like that. As you've said, we have better rules for those cases.
Correct - Kirchhoff's laws apply in simplest cases in circuit analysis.
In high voltage applications like transmission lines, there is actually a tiny "loss" of electric charge due to "partial discharge" aka. corona discharge.
Over 18 years as a wheeled vehicle mechanic, and as someone who does soldering projects as a hobby (and arduinos, etc.), while I totally understood what you are saying, I feel like I have just made the assumption that people would automatically realize this and kind of viewed it as common sense. I'm sure it probably isn't, but sometimes I overlook stuff that seems obvious when I have been using it for a long time. I have a very high interest in Energy / Electricity and have focused most of my college papers on related topics whenever given the opportunity.
I'm not sure what this phenomenon is called, but I have noticed that it tends to happen to people when they spend a lot of time studying something, have always done things a specific way, or are working in particular fields. I didn't even realize how often I make this kind of mistake until I started studying Korean while living in South Korea and was shocked by how quickly I would forget that some of my friends that were with me could not read the signs or advertisements around us. I would be like "OOO that place has Udon, let's go!" and my friend would be looking around all confused and be like "Where?" I'd be like "Over there!" and point at the sign. Then they would get mad at me and say, "Where!?" again. I'd be like "Right there!" as if it was clear as day. Then either they would realize I was pointing at something written in Korean or I would realize they can't read the Korean and feel kind of dumb for somehow not thinking about it. Then I would think about how not very long ago I couldn't read it either and I would get all weirded out.
Late at night, when trying to sleep, I'd wake up abruptly and wonder how many other things do I know that I just assume other people know and how much does it affect the quality of my life? How many things are other people just assuming that I know in the same kind of manner? These are the types of deep thoughts that keep me up at night...
Anyways, on a different topic, I love your videos. You are a great teacher. I'm not currently in any classes where I need to know this information, but I watch all of your videos for fun. What I would really like to see is if you had any videos on Calculus or any recommendations for people who make Calculus fun. I'm not in Calculus right now, but I need to take the Class eventually. My current degree plan is more Statistics based (Geosciences), but I'm taking up a minor in Mathematics because I can't get into an Engineering program without at least Calculus I.
*"I have just made the assumption that people would automatically realize this and kind of viewed it as common sense."*
I can understand making that assumption. I made the same assumption my first year of classroom teaching, but I very quickly learned that it's not common sense. Thankfully, the voltages were extremely low, so no one got hurt. Someone who has no experience working with electricity simply isn't going to bother thinking it through. The dark side of human mental efficiency is mental laziness.
*"What I would really like to see is if you had any videos on Calculus or any recommendations for people who make Calculus fun."*
I mention calculus in my videos sometimes, when it's relevant. I don't dive very deep into it though. If want that deeper interesting look, I can't recommend 3blue1brown enough: ua-cam.com/play/PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53DwVRMYO3t5Yr.html
@@ScienceAsylum the last three years, I have been working in education, but as a training developer not an instructor. The material I work with is for wheeled vehicle mechanics. I have fixed a lot of terrible looking PowerPoints, test materials, and worked on getting things corrected for accreditation.
I have been quite surprised to find out how little some of the students know. They come from all different backgrounds though. Some of them come to the schoolhouse already knowing how to rebuild a transmission, while others cannot tell the difference between a screwdriver and a ratchet. I don't get to work with the students a whole lot, but some of the material we worked on from the ground up and it was a lot of fun watching the students go through the try outs.
What was not a lot of fun was noticing something on the PowerPoint out of alignment during the tryouts that we all missed when creating the materials and knowing that I can't fix it until after the class is over...
I'd probably realize even more things that the students don't know if I worked with them directly more often although the instructors are pretty good at letting us know when something will be way too difficult for the students.
Some of the training materials we initially got were at a very advanced level because it is designed for all the levels including "Subject Matter Experts" and we had to parse out what things will probably confuse students who just learned what a screwdriver is about 10 weeks ago. There were some things that were obvious to remove, but the instructors slashed a lot more material from what we had designed because it was still too advanced for entry level students.
I think it was even harder for me to decide what to cut because I have shelves of capacitors, diodes, and other electronic components at home because I like building things with them. Most of the people I work with can troubleshoot components, but at our level of work we typically replace the entire component and there is never a reason to solder anything... We have troubleshooting paths to follow that tell you what to check and when to replace something. The paths don't tell you why the multimeter should read 24V, just that if it doesn't read 24V replace whatever item it calls for.
A mechanic with a solid understanding of electricity can understand why it should read 24V, but if you follow the troubleshooting paths correctly, you should still be able to fix the problem.
Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to struggle with electricity. They just don't understand it. I try to push the importance of understanding to people though because if you don't understand it, you just become a parts changer. I've seen a lot of people change random parts over the years that didn't fix the problem because they didn't follow the troubleshooting path and made assumptions or they didn't know how to read a wiring diagram.
@@kraziecatclady Yeah, I understand that struggle. One downside to teaching on UA-cam instead of a classroom is that I don't get the feedback from people until _after_ the video is up. In the classroom, someone could ask a question in the middle of an explanation and I could tailor the rest of the explanation to the audience. I don't get to do that here. All I can do is guess what they know and don't know already. Sometimes I get that wrong 🤷♂
Try that with your kids: _no exceptions, because quantum mechanics_
We all know if this was some other channel and that bulb was not working, we would have for sure heard a "KABOOM BOOM". (Phaye chik chik phaye chik chik phaaye, phaaye chik chik - UNIBROW)
I need a world filled with your clones teaching science to kids.
A good way to conceptualize this is to take two straws and drink something with them. Obviously the drink will flow up both straws at the same rate. Now pinch one of them. You'll immediately notice more fluid going up the one you didn't pinch, since it has no 'resistance.' But there's still fluid going up both straws, until you pinch one so hard it no longer looks like a remotely viable path for the drink to flow up.
This can also apply to the swirly straws you see in places like Disney Land when talking about inductors. Physically speaking, they're not a good analogy when describing the mechanisms of travel. But conceptually speaking, it will teach you about the rule of adding time-dependence to the circuit with inductors.
Sucking on two straws while pinching one = increasing the 'resistance' = it does mean *current takes the path of least resistance*
The harder you press on one of the straws, the higher its resistance. Press equally hard on the other straw - you equalize the flow(s).
Increase the suction/potential - and the current increases. Decrease the suction/potential, the current decreases - have two paths and the fluid equalizes into a flow in both straws (at different rates, as he shows in the video).
The fluid isn't in both straws at once, it gets sucked up only one straw - and flows in that one. Electrons are quantifiable point-like structures that repel each other and are attracted to the source of potential(difference). I think Nick is wrong on this.
Suck on a 100 meter drinking straw, no fluid will flow due to vapor pressure and gravity (equal to 'infinite' resistance, though there is a path) - making 9:02 statement 'some current takes each and every path' nonsense.
Just like always the animations and the explanations make me rewrite my whole understanding even though I already know them 🤣 , you are my favorite youtuber ♥
So many things to say...
1. Any channel that can overcome my jealousy of its presentation quality with pure appreciation for its existence deserves a nod!
2. Some viewers were understandably concerned by the low safety standards of the alligator-clip demo. I was about to defend it on the basis of the isolation transformer, but after freezing and zooming in, I realized it's not an isotrans at all, but a circuit breaker with a coin jammed in its bus beak to make contact. 😆 OMG, I'd like to say "priceless" but there's a coin involved. Anyhow, at least there shouldn't (necessarily) be a fire.
In lieu of an isolation transformer may I suggest a GFCI? They have downstream terminals that are protected, no need to plug into the receptacle.
3. At first I was a little disappointed in the actual message of the video compared with some of the other mind-blowers I've seen on the channel. Having grown up with an electronics lab in the basement I don't ever recall thinking that _all_ the current followed the path of least resistance.
But I quickly came around. The clarification is well worth making. That it is accompanied by solid theoretical material pushes it way over the top.
Water analogies are often useful - though almost as often, problemmatic - but I've likened this to poking holes in a water tank. All other things being equal, the highest flow rate comes through the biggest hole (highest conductance) but it comes through all of them, and the more holes there are, the higher is the total flow.
4. Instructors in my past all pronounced Kirchhoff as "Ker-Choff." When I uttered this in the presence of a Swiss electrician he had a good laugh. "It's 'Care-hhchoff'" he says, where the "hhch" part is that gutteral sound like bringing up a minor hairball. Now I can't speak his name without making it cartoonishly over the top. I think your "Ker-coff" is a happy medium for English speakers.
6. All in all, bravo, another winner.
Experiment Clone unplugged it from the wall each time before touching anything. While it _looks_ unsafe, there was actually no danger 👍.
Amazing explanations! As a future science educator, I'm very inspired by your videos.
the fact that you can make me smile while making me learn is priceless, thank you so much !!
Great explanation of Kirchhoff's Law!!! Very important concept in electronics.
An appropriate clarification of a blanket statement about the relationship between resistance and electrical current that was accepted by students for ages without an understanding of its true meaning. Excellent analogy with water flowing through streams of unequal channel widths.
Thanks 🤓
"There are 4 lights!!!" -JLP
Another great vid.
TBH, I always thought the path of least resistance was when we talk about lightning (for example) travelling through air (or the ground)... I mean the copper wired circuit of all your bulbs presents a path of (much) lesser R than the air gap between the croc-clip electrodes. Nice to be reminded it applies to all currents, in all cases.
I really loved your laugh ❤️3:28 , that was so cute , I wish you keep that piece-of-moon 🌙 on your face forever , love you bro ✌️
Your explanation of that conservation of electric charge formula was really cool ❤️❤️❤️😊
Thanks 🙂
Love the explaining and visualizing every part of an equation... more of that please! Makes the math so much more approachable.
I would love to see a video about the similarities between heat flow, electricity, and fluid flow...we just use the analogies to solve physics problems, but it feels a little...wrong
It's definitely a little wrong, but analogies can be helpful.
Analogies are mere models. Models have limitations. Analogies seem to "fail" only when the limitations of the models used are not explicitly presented beforehand.
Those models are actually super useful and helped me out a lot when I studied physics. You do have to understand their limitations though. Like turbulence in hydraulic flow: it doesn't have an equivalent in electric flow so that's where the analogy breaks down.
@@XEinstein There is Eddy current and induction which are somewhat turbulent in nature
@@vinlebo88 eddy currents also happen in hydraulic flow, but when the flow is laminar, not when it is turbulent, so you can't compare that to electrical eddy's
The only channel that really helps me understanding Maxwell’s equations and electromagnetism better and better throughout these videos.
Thank you so much!
Resistance is futile… but needed in a controlled circuit.
Just imagined a dystopian dictator saying that
Borg.
For some reason, the pine cone next to the fork on the road made it so funnier
I love how you explained the divergence in that simple way!
It's something that is explained in physics classes, but between the lines because MATH AND FORMALISM FIRST! and necessarily you lost the physical meaning behind it
I got the impression the professors teaching it didn’t have the best understanding. If you watch MIT lectures you will see they know what they are doing and they can explain in the simplest terms.
I wouldn't say that everything is always ok with math and formalism either (it usually isn't)
You are the greatest scientific communicator on UA-cam. You are my go-to science helper for when I need to convert the messy picture in my head into a solid conceptual understanding. Excellent work.
I noticed that my other comment got your attention (but not a heart lol) and I just wanted to balance out my 'complaint' about the VPN ad read with a more positive comment.
You're allowed to feel however you'd like about ad reads in videos. No hard feelings on my end.
@@ScienceAsylum Good because you're the best!
Since you have debunked the path of least resistance myth, can we now say that resistance is futile?
Borg propaganda, intended to deter resistance and raise Borg morale.
Ba dum tss 🥁
Stop resisting .....You are under spark arrest ...........
He didn't debunk anything. If anything confirmed that current takes the path of lease resistance, just defined it better.
@John Barber : Why do you think that? They have a collective morale.
Actually BJTs (bipolar junction transistors) are devices that we use current to control them but we don't use them so much any more. Modern devices have complimentary CMOS (MOSFETS) that we use VOLTAGE to control them. So field effects are more important than current. Awesome videos ! I am really happy that i can for one time add to the conversation.
I'd love to see a video series with a part by part breakdown for various equations, like what was done here.
One of my favorite ytube subscriptions. I hate the math tho, but the visual breakdowns helps. I like Mr clone too...always asking questions and getting tossed around in space. Lol
OK, that segue into the sponsor message was hilarious.
This channel gives me so much trust that I like first and then watch.
Yeah, i'd say the correction to the old saying is valid. Great video, very informative. 😊
Dang, another great physics video to torment my physics classes! Easy way to approach Conservation Principles like those in Kirchhoff laws is to just keep in mind that "Thou shalt keep track of thy voltages (loop rule) and thou shalt keep track of thy currents (junction rule).
All hail the Gradient 🔽
How can something be so obvious we all already knew and still be totally shocking that it wasn't what we knew at the same time.
Nicely done.
Electronics says: “Resistance is futile!”
Picard says: There...are...FOUR lights!
Diode enters the chat...
Current distributes paths inverse proportionally to diminishing resistance.
Resistance doesn't really exist in alternating current systems. It's instead inductance.
That into and out of space explanation is really good, gosh we need brains like these, I mean explanations
'One of your light bulbs isn't bulbing!' Hilarious! d>_0b
honestly, i had never seen people being taught this before, i had always been taught that more current takes the path of less resistance, maybe it is because here we start studying electricity at a later grade, so that much oversimplification is not needed. But this video taught me a lot about Kirchoff's laws.
Thanks.
Holy smokes this is a cool experiment!! Thanks my Crazy Science Sensei! I'm too much of a wuss to try electronics experiments at home, but I may start...
The setup I had is extremely dangerous with all that exposed metal and wall socket power, but I'm a trained professional. I'd recommend starting with battery powered circuits and hobby bulbs.
Yes, please don't do this with mains electricity. It's far too dangerous even if you know what you are doing.
It will work perfectly fine with a battery-powered circuit and will give you exactly the same result.
@@ScienceAsylum - Nick, I really wish you had done this with 24V DC - you could have used the same light bulbs, and it would have been far less dangerous.
You are right about the bird feeling an electric current. For humans in the business this is called "touch and step voltage" and it is indeed dangereous. There is a mesh network of conductors below electric utilities facilities to adress this problem along with insulated boots in people feet. Every time you see a cautionnary message on a fence to stay away it is mainly for that matter... Cows are susceptible to these currents during a storm because wet + no boots = disaster...
Gonna have a tough sell with this one. It has been observed, so lets see.
Unfortunately he's splitting hairs with the use of the English language here.
@@culwin Yeah. When you understand ohms law its implied that any branch with a voltage difference between two points will flow current.
The statement is a frequent source of confusion amongst laymen and students alike.
To give another example: Until I was about 15, the common statement of Newton's third law, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, seemed nonsensical to me; how can something be both equal _and_ opposite at the same time? Of course, the source of confusion was that no-one had clarified to me that they meant equal magnitude and opposite direction, and I was thinking in terms of vectors already, so the notion of two force vectors being equal (and thus having the same magnitude _and_ direction) and being opposite made no sense to me.
7:10 Any circuit structure which has a size that is comparable to the wavelength of the the AC signal flowing through it will exhibit charge density fluctuations. This is very common in high frequency circuits such as coax cables or radio antennas.
It's interesting, this is one of those things that I've always wondered about.
In school they tell you that current takes the path of least resistance; but if that was literally the case; then only one light bulb will light up, in a parallel circuit.
I'm really glad to finally have that question answered after all these years. Thank you for such a comprehensive video.
Here's an extra thought. In that circuit, with 4 bulbs in parallel, there is 120V (or so) advertorial that circuit. Each bulb still has 120V across it, regardless of whether or not the other bulbs are present. Each bulb then passes current according only to its own resistance.
I've just realized conservation of charge is like continuity equation of fluids. So cool. Great video again
Yep! Same thing 🤓. That's why the fluid analogy works so well.
As a electronic engineer I thank you for this video. Have seen too many people in all kinds of forums say "current takes the path of least resistance" which is wrong on so many levels.
I'm so sorry Nick I was late I always watch your videos first day at the time of upload but I had work. Love you always. Amazing video.
Glad you finally got to it 🙂
@@ScienceAsylum :)