The electric current flows in an open circuit regardless of whether the contemporary physics wants to admit it or not. The laws of nature work regardless of whether we like them or not.

Why does the electricity flow in an open circuit? Because there is no such thing as moving particles. The electric current is just a vibration of the inner EM-forces of the matter. If you “dissolve” the matter completely, at the end you end up with nothing, more precisely, you end up with invisible immaterial EM-forces - just as the forces of an electric or a magnetic field are. Therefore, the matter is a kind of condensation of immaterial forces.

As Bill Gaede rightly made an analogy, you can think of the electric current as of a drill bit twirling in place. That twirling in the case of the electric current is vibrational.

Another good analogy is the kids string telephone:

Just as the sound can propagate vibrationally through the string in this open circuit, so the electricity can propagate through the wire in these open circuit experiments.

Instead of the sound generating the vibrations of the string, they can also be generated by rubbing the string in the middle with a violin bow. Exactly that we are actually doing in the case of electricity generation when we are moving a magnet close to a metal wire. The movement of the magnet incites the EM-forces in the wire which begin to vibrate.

The amplitude of the vibrations is the largest at the middle part of the string and it is smaller at its ends. If we prolong the string on both ends, then in the parts where recently the vibrations were weak, they are now stronger.

Let me tell you a simple electrical experiment. Take an ordinary screwdriver phase tester with a neon lamp. Connect one of its ends to the phase wire (220–240 V). Connect to the other end a piece of wire. The other end of the wire piece is floating in the air. The lamp shines. The longer the wire piece, the stronger the lamp shines.

By adding the wire piece, we have prolonged the string and thus we have made the vibrations in the lamp stronger.

Let’s get back to the title of this post. In every house there are long wires from the electricity meter to the electrical appliances. These wires are causing electricity consumption even when the appliances are not in use. So, if we insert three switches after the electricity meter, we may open these switches when we are many days not at home. (figure below)

These switches can be installed at many other places except at homes.

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Electric current flows in an open circuit, too!