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Where does Electricity REALLY Want to Go?

This is an excerpt from one of my advanced electrical courses for home and commercial building inspectors.  I have modified it slightly for this tutorial.   

George wells, BSEE, MBA, CMI, Licensed Master Electrician
©1992-2007

You may have heard that electricity wants to “follow the path of the least resistance”.

OK.  That's an reasonably accurate statement but is is more a state of how it wants to get there.  It doesn't say where it wants to go.

You have probably heard that electricity wants to “go to ground”.

That is not an incorrect statement.  It is also not the best or most accurate answer.

Perhaps you have heard that electricity want to “return to its source”

Again, that is not an inaccurate statement.  It is a better answer than “go to ground” but it still isn’t entirely accurate.  It isn't the best answer.

So, what is the answer?

Electricity wants to seek a natural balance.  It doesn't really care where it has to go to achieve the balance it seeks.  I'll use an analogy to explain what I mean.

Form a mental picture of 1000 people in a building where it is nice and warm inside and bitter cold outside.  There is a door on the building with a sign above the door that says "Source".  Now imagine another nearby building with a smaller door that that has a sign above it that says "Ground - Come In, It's Warm Inside".

You look around and see a variety of other buildings of various sizes and the buildings have doors of various sizes.  There is sign above every door that says "Come In, It's Warm Inside".  

Now, all the people are forced to go out into the cold.  They go along a paved path that is free of obstacles until they reach some destination out among the buildings.  It is so cold that they cannot survive long.  They are losing body heat fast.  They are trying to maintain their body temperatures.  They are trying to maintain a natural balance. 

After a short time in the cold, the people are allowed to go try to get warm again.  

The people see that some of the buildings are big and some are small, some are close and others are farther away.  They see that some buildings have big doors and some have small doors. 

They people may try to return to the building called "Source".  If the path is clear, that's the way they will go.  What they care about, however, is the temperature they seek.  They don't care if they get warm in the building called "Source" or the building called "Ground".  For that matter, they don't care which building they go to as long as they regain the body heat that they have lost.

Now, imagine that there is a conveyor going from and back to the building called "Source".  Also imagine that the building "Source" is warmer than all the others.  Source is beckoning them with its warmth and making it easy for them to get back there.  The people will try to go there first. 

Electricity is the same way.  Electrons belong in an orbit around a nucleus.  They seek the balance that nature requires them to seek; just as nature requires us to seek warmth when we begin to become cold.  They will try to achieve the balance any way or anywhere they can get it.

This is a very important concept.  It becomes much easier to understand how and why electrical systems are designed the way they are once you understand the behavior of electricity. 

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