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Electric Current "Turbulence"



Ed Schweber (edschweb@ix.netcom.com)
Physics Teacher at The Solomon Schechter Day School, West Orange, NJ

Hi all:

One nice thing about teaching high school students is that, coming to
physics fresh, they tend to ask questions that would never have occured to
me.

We have a complicated schedule and it would be too much of a tangent to
explain why I am teaching circuits in October. But yesterday a student asked
me why there wasn't turbulence when two branches of a parallel circuit meet
again. She didn't use the word "turbulence" but when I asked her if she was
thinking about what might happen when two rivers merge, she said yes.

I have never heard of electric current turbulence but now that the
question was posed I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't exist.

Is there ever turbulence. If not, why not? If it does exist, is there be
a measurable potential difference across the junction?

Thanks for any input.

Ed Schweber