Watch electricity hit a fork in the road at half a billion frames per second

VolcanoOperator
Published on Jun 11, 2025
In this video, I measure a wave of electricity traveling down a wire, and answer the question - how does electricity know where to go? How does "electricity" "decide" where electrons should be moving in wires, and how long does that process take? Spoiler alert - very fast!

I've been very excited about this project for a while - it was a lot of work to figure out a reliable way to make these measurements, but I've learned SO much by actually watching waves travel down wires, and I hope you do too!

There will be a Q&A about this video posted in a few weeks on the second channel, and if you head over there right now, you'll see two direct follow ups to this video with experimental details, and a section about "impedance matching" that was cut from this script.
https://www.youtube.com/@AlphaPhoenix2

Special thanks to my top Patreon supporters!
birdiesnbritts
John Sosa Trustham
Vladimir Shklovsky
Aloysius Sparglepartz
Ryan M
Jason Whatley
Lohann Paterno Coutinho Ferreira
Kasper Nielsen
Jeffrey Mckishen
https://www.patreon.com/AlphaPhoenix

Media Credits:
Slomoguys clip used with permission. Thanks Gav! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJGJHkJolI
I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626
Arcadia - Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100326 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

0:00 a hypothetical question
3:30 Measurement difficulties
7:44 Individual oscilloscope traces
10:23 Electricity moves through Y circuit
12:54 The single wire experiment – how electrons move
17:32 Electrons hitting a dead end
20:23 Revisiting the Y circuit
22:16 The water channel model

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