What is the purpose of the negative wire of a lightbulb?

Question

How come it doesnt have a current, but it needs to be connected for the light to work?

But I held a current detector to the negative side with the light on, and there wasnt anything threw there, could you still get shocked?

But I held a current detector to the negative side with the light on, and there wasnt anything threw there, could you still get shocked? What comes back?
Electricity that didnt burn? Where does it go? I still dont understand why it needs to come back.

Answer 1

It does have a current. The neutral completes the path. Effectively, it has no voltage but plenty of current.

Answer 2

"How come it doesnt have a current, but it needs to be connected for the light to work?"

-- Well, the "negative wire" is more often called the neutral in AC circuits. It does in fact have current flowing through it when the light is connected. When the light is connected, current flows from the source to the light bulb and then back through the neutral. Think of current as the flow of electrons, which can be visualized as water running through a hose.

"But I held a current detector to the negative side with the light on, and there wasnt anything threw there, could you still get shocked? What comes back?"

-- A current detector (or ammeter) should have indicated some current flow through the bulb if it was placed correctly. You must have one terminal of the meter connected to the bulb and the other to the neutral line, also ensuring that the bulb and neutral are not connected to each other. As far as risking shock, the neutral is supposed to be connected to earth back at your transformer. If you are in fact messing with your house wiring, I would suggest not doing so until you know exactly what you are doing. If you are just working with extra low voltages, you should be ok.


"Electricity that didnt burn? Where does it go? I still dont understand why it needs to come back."

-- As I said before, the electrons need to circulate through a complete circuit otherwise there will be no current.

Answer 3

With electricity, nothing happens until there is a circuit. That is, a conductor that leaves one pole of the power supply, goes through a conductive load, and returns to the other pole of the power supply. This is why the shell and the solder dot on a light bulb are there. Inside the socket the switch opens and closes the circuit to cause electricity to flow, then stop flowing

Answer 4

There is no positive or negative wires. They are technically speaking a primary (or live wire) and a neutral (or dead line) that acts as a grounding source. Without a ground line electricity has no place to flow to. If these come into contact before the electricity is used they "short circuit" or cancel each other out.

In newer wiring there is a third grounding wire that acts as a deliberate short circuit.

Answer 5

Electricity needs a path from the source and then a return path. In household wiring, black is hot from the service panel to switch, then to the light. From the light a white wire goes to common/ground at the service panel

Answer 6

Electricity is like a water flow. If electricity is to flow in at one end, there must be another place for it to flow out. It had a current, you just did not measure it correctly. The voltage would be so low you might not be able to find it at that point, but the current you must have.

Answer 7

It will carry current if the light were to light up.

Answer 8

return path of the incoming current.