Getting Started
Electricity is all around us--powering technology like our cell phones, computers, lights, soldering irons, and air conditioners. It's tough to escape it in our modern world. Even when you try to escape electricity, it's still at work throughout nature, from the lightning in a thunderstorm to the synapses inside our body. But what exactly is electricity? This is a very complicated question, and as you dig deeper and ask more questions, there really is not a definitive answer, only abstract representations of how electricity interacts with our surroundings.
Electricity is a natural phenomenon that occurs throughout nature and takes many different forms. In this tutorial we'll focus on current electricity: the stuff that powers our electronic gadgets. Our goal is to understand how electricity flows from a power source through wires, lighting up LEDs, spinning motors, and powering our communication devices.
Read more: electricity providers nz
Electricity is briefly defined as the flow of electric charge, but there's so much behind that simple statement. Where do the charges come from? How do we move them? Where do they move to? How does an electric charge cause mechanical motion or make things light up? So many questions! To begin to explain what electricity is we need to zoom way in, beyond the matter and molecules, to the atoms that make up everything we interact with in life.
This tutorial builds on some basic understanding of physics, force, energy, atoms, in particular. We'll gloss over the basics of each of those physics concepts, but it may help to consult other sources as well.
Going Atomic
To understand the fundamentals of electricity, we need to begin by focusing in on atoms, one of the basic building blocks of life and matter. Atoms exist in over a hundred different forms as chemical elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and copper. Atoms of many types can combine to make molecules, which build the matter we can physically see and touch.
Atoms are tiny, stretching at a max to about 300 picometers long (that's 3x10-10 or 0.0000000003 meters). A copper penny (if it actually were made of 100% copper) would have 3.2x1022 atoms (32,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms) of copper inside it.
Even the atom isn't small enough to explain the workings of electricity. We need to dive down one more level and look in on the building blocks of atoms: protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Building Blocks of Atoms
An atom is built with a combination of three distinct particles: electrons, protons, and neutrons. Each atom has a center nucleus, where the protons and neutrons are densely packed together. Surrounding the nucleus are a group of orbiting electrons.
Every atom must have at least one proton in it. The number of protons in an atom is important, because it defines what chemical element the atom represents. For example, an atom with just one proton is hydrogen, an atom with 29 protons is copper, and an atom with 94 protons is plutonium. This count of protons is called the atom's atomic number.
The proton's nucleus-partner, neutrons, serve an important purpose; they keep the protons in the nucleus and determine the isotope of an atom. They're not critical to our understanding of electricity, so let's not worry about them for this tutorial.
Electrons are critical to the workings of electricity (notice a common theme in their names?) In its most stable, balanced state, an atom will have the same number of electrons as protons. As in the Bohr atom model below, a nucleus with 29 protons (making it a copper atom) is surrounded by an equal number of electrons.
The atom's electrons aren't all forever bound to the atom. The electrons on the outer orbit of the atom are called valence electrons. With enough outside force, a valence electron can escape orbit of the atom and become free. Free electrons allow us to move charge, which is what electricity is all about. Speaking of charge...
Flowing Charges
As we mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial, electricity is defined as the flow of electric charge. Charge is a property of matter--just like mass, volume, or density. It is measurable. Just as you can quantify how much mass something has, you can measure how much charge it has. The key concept with charge is that it can come in two types: positive (+) or negative (-).
In order to move charge we need charge carriers, and that's where our knowledge of atomic particles--specifically electrons and protons--comes in handy. Electrons always carry a negative charge, while protons are always positively charged. Neutrons (true to their name) are neutral, they have no charge. Both electrons and protons carry the same amount of charge, just a different type.
The charge of electrons and protons is important, because it provides us the means to exert a force on them. Electrostatic force!
Electrostatic Force
Electrostatic force (also called Coulomb's law) is a force that operates between charges. It states that charges of the same type repel each other, while charges of opposite types are attracted together. Opposites attract, and likes repel
The amount of force acting on two charges depends on how far they are from each other. The closer two charges get, the greater the force (either pushing together, or pulling away) becomes.
Thanks to electrostatic force, electrons will push away other electrons and be attracted to protons. This force is part of the "glue" that holds atoms together, but it's also the tool we need to make electrons (and charges) flow!
Making Charges Flow
We now have all the tools to make charges flow. Electrons in atoms can act as our charge carrier, because every electron carries a negative charge. If we can free an electron from an atom and force it to move, we can create electricity.
Consider the atomic model of a copper atom, one of the preferred elemental sources for charge flow. In its balanced state, copper has 29 protons in its nucleus and an equal number of electrons orbiting around it. Electrons orbit at varying distances from the nucleus of the atom. Electrons closer to the nucleus feel a much stronger attraction to the center than those in distant orbits. The outermost electrons of an atom are called the valence electrons, these require the least amount of force to be freed from an atom.
Using enough electrostatic force on the valence electron--either pushing it with another negative charge or attracting it with a positive charge--we can eject the electron from orbit around the atom creating a free electron.
Now consider a copper wire: matter filled with countless copper atoms. As our free electron is floating in a space between atoms, it's pulled and prodded by surrounding charges in that space. In this chaos the free electron eventually finds a new atom to latch on to; in doing so, the negative charge of that electron ejects another valence electron from the atom. Now a new electron is drifting through free space looking to do the same thing. This chain effect can continue on and on to create a flow of electrons called electric current.
Conductivity
Some elemental types of atoms are better than others at releasing their electrons. To get the best possible electron flow we want to use atoms which don't hold very tightly to their valence electrons. An element's conductivity measures how tightly bound an electron is to an atom.
Elements with high conductivity, which have very mobile electrons, are called conductors. These are the types of materials we want to use to make wires and other components which aid in electron flow. Metals like copper, silver, and gold are usually our top choices for good conductors.
Elements with low conductivity are called insulators. Insulators serve a very important purpose: they prevent the flow of electrons. Popular insulators include glass, rubber, plastic, and air.
Static or Current Electricity
Before we get much further, let's discuss the two forms electricity can take: static or current. In working with electronics, current electricity will be much more common, but static electricity is important to understand as well.
Static Electricity
Static electricity exists when there is a build-up of opposite charges on objects separated by an insulator. Static (as in "at rest") electricity exists until the two groups of opposite charges can find a path between each other to balance the system out.
Electricity is all around us--powering technology like our cell phones, computers, lights, soldering irons, and air conditioners. It's tough to escape it in our modern world. Even when you try to escape electricity, it's still at work throughout nature, from the lightning in a thunderstorm to the synapses inside our body. But what exactly is electricity? This is a very complicated question, and as you dig deeper and ask more questions, there really is not a definitive answer, only abstract representations of how electricity interacts with our surroundings.
Electricity is a natural phenomenon that occurs throughout nature and takes many different forms. In this tutorial we'll focus on current electricity: the stuff that powers our electronic gadgets. Our goal is to understand how electricity flows from a power source through wires, lighting up LEDs, spinning motors, and powering our communication devices.
Read more: electricity providers nz
Electricity is briefly defined as the flow of electric charge, but there's so much behind that simple statement. Where do the charges come from? How do we move them? Where do they move to? How does an electric charge cause mechanical motion or make things light up? So many questions! To begin to explain what electricity is we need to zoom way in, beyond the matter and molecules, to the atoms that make up everything we interact with in life.
This tutorial builds on some basic understanding of physics, force, energy, atoms, in particular. We'll gloss over the basics of each of those physics concepts, but it may help to consult other sources as well.
Going Atomic
To understand the fundamentals of electricity, we need to begin by focusing in on atoms, one of the basic building blocks of life and matter. Atoms exist in over a hundred different forms as chemical elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and copper. Atoms of many types can combine to make molecules, which build the matter we can physically see and touch.
Atoms are tiny, stretching at a max to about 300 picometers long (that's 3x10-10 or 0.0000000003 meters). A copper penny (if it actually were made of 100% copper) would have 3.2x1022 atoms (32,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms) of copper inside it.
Even the atom isn't small enough to explain the workings of electricity. We need to dive down one more level and look in on the building blocks of atoms: protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Building Blocks of Atoms
An atom is built with a combination of three distinct particles: electrons, protons, and neutrons. Each atom has a center nucleus, where the protons and neutrons are densely packed together. Surrounding the nucleus are a group of orbiting electrons.
Every atom must have at least one proton in it. The number of protons in an atom is important, because it defines what chemical element the atom represents. For example, an atom with just one proton is hydrogen, an atom with 29 protons is copper, and an atom with 94 protons is plutonium. This count of protons is called the atom's atomic number.
The proton's nucleus-partner, neutrons, serve an important purpose; they keep the protons in the nucleus and determine the isotope of an atom. They're not critical to our understanding of electricity, so let's not worry about them for this tutorial.
Electrons are critical to the workings of electricity (notice a common theme in their names?) In its most stable, balanced state, an atom will have the same number of electrons as protons. As in the Bohr atom model below, a nucleus with 29 protons (making it a copper atom) is surrounded by an equal number of electrons.
The atom's electrons aren't all forever bound to the atom. The electrons on the outer orbit of the atom are called valence electrons. With enough outside force, a valence electron can escape orbit of the atom and become free. Free electrons allow us to move charge, which is what electricity is all about. Speaking of charge...
Flowing Charges
As we mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial, electricity is defined as the flow of electric charge. Charge is a property of matter--just like mass, volume, or density. It is measurable. Just as you can quantify how much mass something has, you can measure how much charge it has. The key concept with charge is that it can come in two types: positive (+) or negative (-).
In order to move charge we need charge carriers, and that's where our knowledge of atomic particles--specifically electrons and protons--comes in handy. Electrons always carry a negative charge, while protons are always positively charged. Neutrons (true to their name) are neutral, they have no charge. Both electrons and protons carry the same amount of charge, just a different type.
The charge of electrons and protons is important, because it provides us the means to exert a force on them. Electrostatic force!
Electrostatic Force
Electrostatic force (also called Coulomb's law) is a force that operates between charges. It states that charges of the same type repel each other, while charges of opposite types are attracted together. Opposites attract, and likes repel
The amount of force acting on two charges depends on how far they are from each other. The closer two charges get, the greater the force (either pushing together, or pulling away) becomes.
Thanks to electrostatic force, electrons will push away other electrons and be attracted to protons. This force is part of the "glue" that holds atoms together, but it's also the tool we need to make electrons (and charges) flow!
Making Charges Flow
We now have all the tools to make charges flow. Electrons in atoms can act as our charge carrier, because every electron carries a negative charge. If we can free an electron from an atom and force it to move, we can create electricity.
Consider the atomic model of a copper atom, one of the preferred elemental sources for charge flow. In its balanced state, copper has 29 protons in its nucleus and an equal number of electrons orbiting around it. Electrons orbit at varying distances from the nucleus of the atom. Electrons closer to the nucleus feel a much stronger attraction to the center than those in distant orbits. The outermost electrons of an atom are called the valence electrons, these require the least amount of force to be freed from an atom.
Using enough electrostatic force on the valence electron--either pushing it with another negative charge or attracting it with a positive charge--we can eject the electron from orbit around the atom creating a free electron.
Now consider a copper wire: matter filled with countless copper atoms. As our free electron is floating in a space between atoms, it's pulled and prodded by surrounding charges in that space. In this chaos the free electron eventually finds a new atom to latch on to; in doing so, the negative charge of that electron ejects another valence electron from the atom. Now a new electron is drifting through free space looking to do the same thing. This chain effect can continue on and on to create a flow of electrons called electric current.
Conductivity
Some elemental types of atoms are better than others at releasing their electrons. To get the best possible electron flow we want to use atoms which don't hold very tightly to their valence electrons. An element's conductivity measures how tightly bound an electron is to an atom.
Elements with high conductivity, which have very mobile electrons, are called conductors. These are the types of materials we want to use to make wires and other components which aid in electron flow. Metals like copper, silver, and gold are usually our top choices for good conductors.
Elements with low conductivity are called insulators. Insulators serve a very important purpose: they prevent the flow of electrons. Popular insulators include glass, rubber, plastic, and air.
Static or Current Electricity
Before we get much further, let's discuss the two forms electricity can take: static or current. In working with electronics, current electricity will be much more common, but static electricity is important to understand as well.
Static Electricity
Static electricity exists when there is a build-up of opposite charges on objects separated by an insulator. Static (as in "at rest") electricity exists until the two groups of opposite charges can find a path between each other to balance the system out.
