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

Video Description

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