return path
noun1
Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics The route by which a current or signal returns to its source, or to earth.
- The inner, or negative, rail is also known as the 'current return' rail, because electrical current needs a circuit - a return path to earth, in other words.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 136:
- One rail (known as the traction return rail) is not broken into [track circuit] sections as it provides the return path for the current.2023 November 15, Prof. Jim Wild, “This train was delayed because of bad weather in space”, in RAIL, number 996, pages 30-31: