What an electric grid does, then, is first forcibly divorce happy electrons which hold a negative charge from their atoms which hold a positive charge (generation) and then provide an easy route (the wires) for them to reunite again. As the electrons travel along these wires they pass through all the things we put in their way—things like incandescent lightbulbs. And as they pass they encounter resistance. A filament in a bulb is less conductive than the lines into and out of the device. Some of the electrons’ potential—the push it has to reunite—is thus expended in getting through this
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