How do electrons find the "Path of Least Resistance"?

Ever wonder how electrons know where they are going? Electricity is a pretty mystifying topic, because electricity seems to be able to do impossible things, or at least things that don't make sense at a normal "human" scale. In this video I use a thermal camera to show electric current through a maze made of aluminum foil. The electric current very efficiently solves the maze, which is awesome, and heats up the "solution" so we can see it! To explain this effect, I printed out the same maze but made of plastic trenches and not metal foil. By running water through this plastic maze, we can learn something about how electrons flow in metals. This analogy does have some limitations that you need to keep in mind, but for the vast majority of cases, I think it does a FANTASTIC job at modeling bulk electron behavior in "1D" wires. At the end of the video, I have a few more mazes that have two solutions each, to test the "path of least resistance" adage.

Videos referenced: "Can water solve a maze? - Steve Mould https://youtu.be/81ebWToAnvA

"Why Rivers Move" - Practical Engineering https://youtu.be/UBivwxBgdPQ

Also relevant: Discussion of current reflections from resistive loads @ 10:38 in this video from Electroboom and Veritasium https://youtu.be/O-WCZ8PkrK0?t=638

Music in this video: I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626

Ether by Silent Partner YouTube Music License ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3gnNpYK3lo