Is Electricity Instant? A Shocking Experiment from 1746 | What the Physics?!

How fast does electricity move – and why? In 1746, a French physicist electrocuted a large group of monks to learn about electricity, and he concluded that it moves with “infinite speed.” That wasn’t quite right, but it would take decades to figure out the real answer and its reason. Hosted by Athena Brensberger @astroathens 💫 Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:49 The Speed of Electricity 03:05 How Does Electricity Move So Fast? 05:22 Conclusion 📰 Stay up to date on the latest science discoveries, full episodes, articles, videos, and more by signing up for NOVA's newsletter here: https://to.pbs.org/4brCC7Y ▶️ Stream NOVA documentaries & more with PBS Documentaries on Prime Video: https://amzn.to/4hXBlsu 🛍️ Shop official NOVA 50th anniversary merch: https://nova-shop.org/ Follow on social for more NOVA content Twitter: https://twitter.com/novapbs Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/novapbs TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@novapbs