Gel Electrophoresis

Real World Example

Imagine trying to sort different lengths of spaghetti noodles after a messy kitchen accident. Just like placing the noodles on a sloped surface allows gravity to pull the longer noodles further down than the shorter ones, gel electrophoresis uses an electric current to pull DNA strands through a gel, with shorter strands moving faster and further than longer ones. In this analogy, the sloped surface is like the gel, the gravity is comparable to the electric current, and the different lengths of spaghetti represent the varied sizes of DNA strands being separated.