On paper all our components are ideal and no components exist where we don't draw them. In an actual circuit, things are not quite so tidy: wires have non zero resistance and inductance, sources have output resistance, parasitic capacitances and mutual inductances exist between wires, and a host of other gremlins. In addition, although we are only applying input signals up to a few 10s of kHz, the active devices (op amps and transistors) we use have gain at frequencies up to a few MHz (op amps) or 100s of MHz (transistors). This means that all of the "little" pieces of wire can become fairly effective antennas, radiating energy to (and receiving from) the rest of the world, and more significantly, to other parts of the circuit.
What all this means is that a circuit which is wired correctly topologically may fail to function as expected. Although we can't eliminate all of these effects, we can do some things to minimize them. Here are a few.
The basic idea of wiring on a solderless breadboard is simple: just stick the ends of the component leads or wires into the holes. But like any seemingly simple process, there are a few subtlties that can make the difference between success and failure.
First a note of caution. The material that the clips inside the breadboard are made of (so called "nickel silver") is a compromise between good conductivity, corrosion resistance, and springiness. In particular the elastic limit is considerably less than of a good steel spring and if spread too far, can be permanently distorted. To avoid deforming the connector clips:
With the health of our breadboard assured, there are a few more things we can do to make sure that our connections are good ones.