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I don't know squat about electricity If electricity takes all paths, then whats the point of the mantra? It includes the highest and least resistance, and ever

by setr 9y ago

I don't know squat about electricity If electricity takes all paths, then whats the point of the mantra? It includes the highest and least resistance, and everything in between. The mantra is almost deliberately meant to mislead?

planteen 9y ago
> If electricity takes all paths, then whats the point of the mantra? It includes the highest and least resistance, and everything in between. The mantra is almost deliberately meant to mislead? Maybe mantra wasn't the right word, Wikipedia calls it a heuristic. Regardless, I agree it is very misleading and I would never say anything like that when teaching or explaining electricity. Why does it keep getting repeated? Who knows. Inertia of the masses without a much understanding of electricity would be my guess... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_least_resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_least_resistance
Dylan16807 9y ago
Most of the power goes along the path of least resistance. It's an oversimplification, but you'll make much more dangerous mistakes if you let intuition lead you into assuming a pretty spread-out flow.
jschwartzi 9y ago
It's technically correct, but the path of least resistance is the path of least resistance at the instant of measurement. Voltage and current are abstractions that represent the aggregate motion of charge carriers in a medium. Like charge carriers repel each other. At any instant, an individual charge carrier will take the path of least resistance. Calculus is required to model the current in a non-trivial system. It frequently leads to counter-intuitive results. In short, it's complicated.
Robin_Message 9y ago
A better mantra would be: electricity takes all paths in inverse proportion to their resistance. So with a single low resistance path, give or take, all the electricity will go that way. But with two paths of equal resistance, half the electricity will go each way.

by setr 9y ago

planteen 9y ago

> If electricity takes all paths, then whats the point of the mantra? It includes the highest and least resistance, and everything in between. The mantra is almost deliberately meant to mislead? Maybe mantra wasn't the right word, Wikipedia calls it a heuristic. Regardless, I agree it is very misleading and I would never say anything like that when teaching or explaining electricity. Why does it keep getting repeated? Who knows. Inertia of the masses without a much understanding of electricity would be my guess... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_least_resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_least_resistance

Dylan16807 9y ago

Most of the power goes along the path of least resistance. It's an oversimplification, but you'll make much more dangerous mistakes if you let intuition lead you into assuming a pretty spread-out flow.

jschwartzi 9y ago

It's technically correct, but the path of least resistance is the path of least resistance at the instant of measurement. Voltage and current are abstractions that represent the aggregate motion of charge carriers in a medium. Like charge carriers repel each other. At any instant, an individual charge carrier will take the path of least resistance. Calculus is required to model the current in a non-trivial system. It frequently leads to counter-intuitive results. In short, it's complicated.

Robin_Message 9y ago

A better mantra would be: electricity takes all paths in inverse proportion to their resistance. So with a single low resistance path, give or take, all the electricity will go that way. But with two paths of equal resistance, half the electricity will go each way.