How Electricity Actually Works

This video is sponsored by Brilliant. The first 200 people to sign up via https://brilliant.org/veritasium get 20% off a yearly subscription. Special thanks to: Bruce Sherwood, Ruth Chabay, Aaron Titus, and Steve Spicklemore https://matterandinteractions.org VPython simulation: http://tinyurl.com/SurfaceCharge Richard Abbott from Caltech Electrical Engineering YouTubers: Electroboom: https://www.youtube.com/c/Electroboom Alpha Phoenix: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlphaPhoenixChannel eevblog: https://www.youtube.com/c/EevblogDave Ben Watson: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgZUVIEtBnnBpFWJuxl_E5g Big Clive: https://www.youtube.com/c/Bigclive Z Y: https://www.youtube.com/user/ZongyiYang NYU Quantum Technology Lab https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk7io8SN3ZwKvkpnMCbIGsA Further analysis of the large circuit is available here: https://ve42.co/bigcircuit Special thanks to Dr Geraint Lewis for bringing up this question in the first place and discussing it with us. Check out his and Dr Chris Ferrie’s new book here: https://ve42.co/Universe2021 ▀▀▀ References: A great video about the Poynting vector by the Science Asylum: https://youtu.be/C7tQJ42nGno Sefton, I. M. (2002). Understanding electricity and circuits: What the text books don’t tell you. In Science Teachers’ Workshop. -- https://ve42.co/Sefton Feynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B., & Sands, M. (1965). The feynman lectures on physics; vol. Ii, chapter 27. American Journal of Physics, 33(9), 750-752. -- https://ve42.co/Feynman27 Hunt, B. J. (2005). The Maxwellians. Cornell University Press. Müller, R. (2012). A semiquantitative treatment of surface charges in DC circuits. American Journal of Physics, 80(9), 782-788. -- https://ve42.co/Muller2012 Galili, I., & Goihbarg, E. (2005). Energy transfer in electrical circuits: A qualitative account. American journal of physics, 73(2), 141-144. -- https://ve42.co/Galili2004 Deno, D. W. (1976). Transmission line fields. IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, 95(5), 1600-1611. -- https://ve42.co/Deno76 ▀▀▀ Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Inconcision, Kelly Snook, TTST, Ross McCawley, Balkrishna Heroor, Chris LaClair, Avi Yashchin, John H. Austin, Jr., OnlineBookClub.org, Dmitry Kuzmichev, Matthew Gonzalez, Eric Sexton, john kiehl, Anton Ragin, Diffbot, Micah Mangione, MJP, Gnare, Dave Kircher, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Dumky, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Josh Hibschman, Mac Malkawi, Michael Schneider, jim buckmaster, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Stephen Wilcox, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Clayton Greenwell, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal ▀▀▀ Written by Derek Muller Edited by Derek Muller Filmed by Trenton Oliver and Petr Lebedev Animation by Mike Radjabov and Ivy Tello Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images Music from Epidemic Sound and Jonny Hyman Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, and Emily Zhang