Energy is a hot topic in our communities. Everyone is trying to be more energy efficient or more “green”.
Going “green” is trendy now from bringing your own reusable bags to the grocery store to driving a hybrid car, there are many ways that we are trying to reduce the amount of energy we consume.
In our homes many Americans are replacing old light bulbs with more energy efficient ones and replacing old washer and dryers with their “greener” countertops. Although we are all trying to conserve our energy, or electricity, there are not many of us that actually know what electricity really is.
We use electricity countless times a day. From cooking our food to lighting our home and our workplace, our society is dependent on electricity.
Even the electricity from batteries is important in our day to day lives. We use the electricity from batters when we drive our cars or turn on a flashlight.
If you doubt the fact that you are dependent on electricity take a stroll through your home, school or office. Look around and try to count the number of items that are running on electricity.
After running out of fingers and toes to count on, you will realize that electricity surrounds you every day. Having an accurate knowledge of what electricity is will help you better understand how to preserve it.
To understand electricity we must first understand atoms. Atoms are microscopically small, but even they are made up of smaller particles.
The atoms are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. The electrons spin around the nucleus, or the center of the atom.
The nucleus is made up of neutrons and protons. Electrons contain a negative charge while protons hold a positive charge and neutrons are neutral, without a positive or negative charge.
An atom is a single part that makes up an element. We have discovered 118 elements and these elements make up everything!
There are some elements that are necessary for humans to live. Oxygen would be a prime example of a necessary element.
Every atom has a specific an unique number of electrons, protons and neutrons. No matter how many particles the particular atom has, the number of electrons needs to be the same as the number of protons in most cases.
When the number of electrons and protons are the same the atom is balanced. If an atom is balanced it is extremely stable.
There are some kinds of atoms that have loosely attached electrons. An atom can become positively charged when it loses electrons and the number of protons stays the same.
When an atom is charged it is called an “ion”. It can be charge negatively or positively depending on whether it has an excess of protons or electrons.
Electrons can be forced to move from one atom to another. When this happens, a current of electricity is created.
The electrons movement from one atom to another is called a “flow”. During this process an electron is lost from one atom when it attaches itself to another proton.
A very useful image to compare this o is the fire fighter’s bucket brigades in the past. The difference would be that instead of a firefighter passing one bucket down to the end, each person would have a bucket and the man at the beginning of the line would pour water into the first man’s bucket, so on and so forth.
The result of this form of a bucket brigade is a lot of spilled water and definitely not enough water to get rid of the fire. This is a very inefficient way of putting out a fire.
The scientists and engineers of our time have found several ways to make large numbers of positive atoms and free negative electrons. Because the positive atoms want negative electrons to balance them out, they have a strong attraction for the electrons.
The electron is also looking to be a part of a balanced atom so it is strongly attracted to the positive atoms. The positive attracts the negative to balance out the atoms.
The larger the number of positive atoms or negative electrons you have, the stronger the attraction for the other. Because both positive and negative charged groups attract to eachother, we call the total attraction “charge”.
Finally, when electrons move throughout the atoms of matter, a current of electricity is created. There are some forms of matter that conduct energy better than others, giving us insulators and conductors.
Jack R. Landry has worked as an electrician for the last 14 years and written hundreds of articles about electrical work. He recommends (http://www.phoenixpdx.com) for an electrician and other related services.
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