5/29/24, 6:02 PM Introduction to Electricity

Introduction to Electricity

Electricity is a natural force produced by the movement of electrons. The most common natural source of electrical energy is lightning. Of course,
the energy produced by a burst of lightning is much too strong to be harnessed for use in homes and businesses. Therefore, the electrical energy
we use every day is produced artificially in generating plants and by equipment, like solar panels, which harness renewable energy resources.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of electricity to today’s homes and industries. Electrical power is used for lighting, heating, air conditioning,
and running home appliances. Manufacturing plants use electricity to run processing equipment, control systems, and computers. Millions of
present-day jobs would be radically different or nonexistent without electricity. We couldn’t live the way we’re used to without electricity. If you
doubt that, think about the panic that occurs when your lights go out or when your bank’s computer shuts down!

The History of Electricity

Humans have experienced the effects of electricity since ancient times. Early men and women observed the effects of lightning, magnetism, and
static electricity without understanding where these forces came from or what caused them.

The first experiments with electricity were performed about 600 bce in ancient Greece. The Greeks noted that when the mineral amber was
rubbed against fur, the amber gained the ability to attract small objects. Today, we understand that this attraction is caused by static electricity.
However, in ancient Greece, there was no real understanding of this phenomenon and no practical application for it.

By the fifteenth century, scientists had begun to examine natural forces more closely and develop theories about them. Over the next several
hundred years, scientists such as Alessandro Volta, Georg Ohm, James Joule, and James Watt made important discoveries about electricity,
magnetism, and physics. All of these men gave their names to electrical properties and units (volt, ohm, joule, and watt).

In America, an important advance in electrical studies was made in 1752 when Benjamin Franklin performed his famous experiments with
lightning and kites. Franklin attached a metal key to a kite string and sent the kite sailing into a lightning storm. He then observed the discharge of
lightning near the kite. When he reeled in the kite, he moved his hand near the key and saw a spark of electricity. Franklin observed that the
lightning was an intense electrical discharge between the negatively charged lower portion of thunderclouds and the positively charged earth. His
observations provided important insights into the nature of electricity.

Popular retellings of Franklin's kite experiment claim that lightning struck either the kite or the key directly. Modern
science tells us that this scenario is highly unlikely: if lightning had directly contacted the kite wire, Franklin most likely
would have been killed due to the high electrical charge in the wire. To put it in perspective: a 100 ampere current is
enough to cause a fatal injury, while lightning bolts can carry 200,000 amperes or more.

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The telegraph, telephone, and electric light were three of the first practical uses of electricity.

The nineteenth century saw the practical application of electrical principles to commercial products and devices. The first truly successful
application of electricity was made in 1837 with the telegraph. The telephone was patented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell; then came the
incandescent light, invented by Thomas Edison in 1878. These devices changed the world and kicked off a new age of electrical study and
invention.

Now that you understand a little about the importance of electricity and its history, you’ll examine how electricity is used today.

A Simple Circuit

As a security technician, you’ll need to know how electricity is generated, distributed, used, and controlled. You can start the learning process by
looking at a simple circuit. Examining the basic structure and components of a circuit will help you better understand the material you’ll study
later in this text.

A circuit is defined as a complete electrical path. A typical circuit includes a power source, conductors, a load, and a switch. The power source in a
circuit is typically a wall outlet or a battery. The conductors are the wires that carry the electricity. The load is a device, such as a light or an
appliance, that you want to run with electricity. The switch is the device used to turn the electricity flow on and off.

In a circuit, when the switch is turned on, electrical power from the power source flows through an unbroken path to the load. This is called
a closed circuit because the circuit is complete—the power flows through the entire circuit path. When the switch is turned off, the path of the
circuit is broken, and power can’t flow to the load. This is called an open circuit.

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This figure illustrates a simple electrical circuit. In (A), the switch is open, so electricity can’t flow to the LED. In (B), the switch is closed, allowing electricity to reach
the LED and light it.

A simple flashlight circuit is shown in the figure. The power source in this circuit is a battery. The conductors are copper wire. The load is a light
emitting diode, or LED, and a resistor. You’ll soon learn more about resistors. For now, it’s enough for you to understand they’re devices that
restrict the flow of electricity without completely blocking it. In A, the switch is open (turned off ). The electrical circuit is therefore open, and
power can’t flow through the wires and reach the LED. In B, the switch is closed (turned on). The circuit is therefore complete, and electricity can
flow through the wires to the LED and turn it on.

Now you understand what a circuit is, but you still haven’t learned exactly how the electrical power is created. Well, you learned earlier that
electricity is the movement of electrons. Electrons are tiny atomic particles that have a negative electrical charge. In the circuit shown in the figure,
moving electrons come from the battery. The battery produces a flow of electrons that moves through the wires to light the LED.

Now you’ll take a closer look at the battery and how it produces electrical power. Note that the battery has two different ends, and each end is
labeled differently. The end of the battery that’s labeled with a negative sign (−) is called the negative terminal. The opposite end of the battery is
marked with a positive sign (+) and is called the positive terminal. The negative terminal of the battery contains too many electrons. The positive
terminal of the battery contains too few electrons.

It’s a law of nature that whenever too many electrons are in one place, the electrons will move to a place where there are fewer electrons. That is,
these opposite forces attract each other. So, the electrons at the negative terminal of the battery are drawn toward the positive end of the battery.

If you attach wires to the two battery terminals, you create a path for the electrons to follow from the negative end of the battery to the positive end.
By attaching the conductors, you’re “building a road” between the two terminals. Then, when the switch is turned on and the circuit is closed, the
electrons from the negative terminal of the battery are drawn to the positive terminal. As the electrons flow through the LED it glows, producing
visible light. The flow of electrons through a circuit is called electric current.

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Atoms and Electrons

You’ve just learned that electrons must flow through a complete circuit in order for the circuit to work, and you’ve learned that electrons are
atomic particles. What exactly does this mean? To answer that question, you’ll need to look at the structure of an atom.

All matter in the universe is formed from about one hundred or so different substances called elements. Each different element, such as gold,
silver, or oxygen, is made up of its own unique gold, silver, or oxygen atoms. An atom is the smallest particle of an element that still keeps the
properties of the element.

All atoms are made up of tiny atomic particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. The electron is a very lightweight particle that has a negative
electrical charge. Protons are much heavier than electrons (about 1,840 times heavier) and have a positive charge. Neutrons have no electrical
charge at all—they’re neutral. Electrons are the smallest type of atomic particle; they’re much smaller than the atom as a whole.

A single atom of hydrogen contains one proton and one electron. The proton is represented by the circle with the plus sign (+) inside. The electron is represented by the
circle with the minus sign (–) inside.

Now, you’ll look at an atom. The figure shows a drawing of a hydrogen atom, the simplest atom known. A hydrogen atom contains one electron
and one proton. The proton is located in the nucleus (the center) of the atom. The electron orbits around the nucleus, just like the moon orbits
around the earth. All atoms are constructed in the same general way as the hydrogen atom, but the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons
varies with each different substance.

The hydrogen atom is perfectly balanced electrically. The atom contains one positively charged proton and one negatively charged electron; the
proton and electron balance each other out. Because of this balance, the electron in a hydrogen atom is tightly attached to the proton. The electron
can’t easily be removed from the atom.

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A copper atom contains a single electron in its outermost orbit. This free electron can be dislodged easily from its orbit.

Now, in comparison, look at an atom of copper. The copper atom contains 29 electrons and 29 protons. The electrons orbit the nucleus of the
copper atom in several layers called shells. The outermost shell contains only one electron, called a free electron. Since the free electron is alone
and very far away from the atom’s nucleus, it can be dislodged from its orbit easily.

In general, protons and neutrons can’t be removed from an atom easily. However, in some atoms, electrons can be removed easily. You already
know that electric current is produced by the movement of electrons. Well, to get the electrons moving, they’re removed from one atom and
inserted into the outer shell of the next atom.

Electrons can be removed from atoms in a variety of ways. For example, when light strikes some substances, electrons may be dislodged from the
substance. Another common way to remove electrons from a substance is through friction (rubbing).

The structure of an atom determines how easily an electron can be removed from it. For example, you saw that the structure of the hydrogen atom
makes it difficult to remove an electron from its orbit. Because of this, it’s very difficult to get electrons moving in hydrogen. However, in the
copper atom, the outermost electron can be removed from its orbit easily. Therefore, it’s very easy to produce a flow of electric current in copper
atoms. (This property is why copper is used in electrical wires and cables.)

The number of electrons that an atom contains, and how easily those electrons can be dislodged from their orbits, is very important in our study of
electricity. Any substance in which electrons can move freely is called a conductor. Atoms that are tightly bonded are very poor conductors of
electricity, while atoms that contain free electrons in their outer shells (like copper) are excellent conductors of electricity. We’ll discuss
conductors in more detail a little later.

The Flow of Electrons in a Circuit

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In this magnified view of a simple circuit, a free electron from the battery enters the copper conductor wire. As the battery electron enters the wire, it displaces free
electrons from the copper atoms in the wire, creating a “chain reaction” of moving electrons.

Now that you understand more about how atoms are constructed, you’ll examine how electrons flow within an electrical circuit. The figure of a
simple circuit shows a copper wire attached to a battery. One section of the copper wire is enlarged so that you can see the individual copper
atoms that make up the wire. The battery in this figure has a negative terminal (−) and a positive terminal (+). There are too many electrons at the
negative end and too few electrons at the positive end. In the figure, the circuit is closed, and the electrons from the negative battery terminal are
drawn to the positive terminal.

So, an electron is drawn from the negative terminal of the battery into the copper conductor wire. This electron then collides with a free electron in
a copper atom, bumping the copper electron out of orbit and taking its place. The displaced copper electron moves to a neighboring copper atom,
bumps another free electron out of orbit, and takes its place. As this “chain reaction” continues, each free electron bumps its neighbor out of orbit
and takes its place. The electrons keep pushing each other along until a free electron reaches the end of the conductor wire and moves into the
positive terminal of the battery. This chain reaction of moving electrons is electric current.

In reality, we can’t follow the movement of just one electron through a wire. Many millions of tiny copper atoms make up a wire. When a circuit is
closed, millions of electrons move through the wire at the same time, and at a very, very high rate of speed.

Conductors, Resistors, and Insulators

One of the first scientists to observe the flow of electrical current through various materials was Georg Ohm. In the early 1800s, Ohm performed
experiments with electric current. He found that when current was applied to different materials, some materials carried the current readily and
others didn’t. He found that different materials put up different degrees of resistance to the flow of electricity.

For example, he noticed that silver and copper readily permitted the passage of almost all of the applied electricity; therefore, he called these
metals conductors. Some materials carried almost no electricity, even when a very high voltage was applied. Ohm called these materials insulators.
Examples of insulators are glass, mica, porcelain, paper, plastic, and rubber. Other materials passed some (but not all) of the current, so these were
called resistors. Carbon is an example of a resistor.

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Using your knowledge about the structure of atoms, you can now explain the results of Ohm’s experiments. You learned that some atoms are
constructed with free electrons in their outermost orbits. A material in which electrons can be moved easily from one atom to another by an
outside force is a good conductor of electricity.

In comparison, other materials are made of atoms in which the electrons are very tightly bound to their orbits. In these atoms, it’s very difficult to
remove electrons from their orbits, so the material is a poor conductor of electricity. If the electrons in an atom can’t be moved from their orbits at
all, the material is an insulator. If at least some of the electrons can be moved, the material is a resistor.

Atomic Structures of a Silver Atom and a Copper Atom

Two of the best-known conductors of electricity are silver and copper. The atomic structures of the silver and copper atom are compared in the
figure. Note that both atoms have only one electron in the outermost orbit. This property makes silver and copper excellent conductors of
electricity.

Silver is actually an even better conductor than copper. Why? Well, even though both silver and copper atoms have free electrons, the free electron
in silver is farther away from the nucleus than the free electron in copper. The farther the free electron is from the nucleus, the more loosely bound
the electron will be to the nucleus. This explains why silver, which has five electron orbits, is a better conductor than copper, which has four orbits.
Silver is often used as a coating on electrical conductors to keep the resistance as low as possible.

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An atom of carbon has four electrons in its outer orbit. These electrons aren’t easily dislodged from their orbit, so carbon is a poor conductor of electricity.

Now, look at an atom of carbon. The nucleus of the carbon atom contains six protons and six neutrons. Six electrons orbit the nucleus. Now, look
more closely at the electrons. Note that the electrons orbit the nucleus in two rings, or shells. The inner shell contains two orbiting electrons, and
the outer shell contains four orbiting electrons. The inner two electrons are tightly bonded to the nucleus. The outer four electrons are more
loosely bonded to the nucleus and can be dislodged from their orbit.

However, the four electrons in the carbon atom aren’t dislodged as easily as the single free electron in a silver atom. Thus, carbon will
conduct some electricity, but it’s not as good a conductor as silver. For this reason, carbon is used to make resistors, which are devices placed in
electrical circuits to reduce the flow of electricity. Resistors reduce the flow of electricity, but they don’t stop it completely.

Materials such as glass and ceramic contain atoms that are very tightly bonded. These materials are therefore often used to make insulating
devices. An insulator completely stops the flow of electricity in a circuit. You’ll frequently see ceramic insulators at the top of power poles.

Conductivity is a measure of how well a material carries electricity. The Relative Conductivities of Metals table compares the conductivity of
several metals you’ll see often. Note that copper is used as a standard against which the conductivities of other materials are rated. For the
purposes of comparison, copper is considered to be 100% conductive. The conductivity ratings of other materials are then expressed as percents
relative to copper. Note that this doesn’t mean that copper has no electrical resistance; it just means that copper is used as the standard that other
materials are rated against. Silver, for example, is rated 105 percent on the table. While silver isn’t a perfect conductor of electricity, it’s the best
conductor. Insulated wire, current-carrying metallic components known as bus bars, wire terminals, and other electrical conductors are most
often made of copper, which is much less expensive than silver.

While copper is given a conductivity rating of 100 percent in the table, it isn’t a perfect conductor. All forms of copper offer some opposition to the
flow of electrons in a circuit. That’s why circuits that require very long current-carrying conductors or very high current levels are built using
physically larger conductors, bus bars, and terminals. These components, which are said to have a larger cross-sectional area, provide enough
space for the relatively unrestricted flow of electrons.

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Relative Conductivities of Metals

Metal Conductivity Relative to Copper (%)

Silver 105

Copper 100

Gold 70

Aluminum 61

Nickel 22

Zinc 27

Brass 28

Iron 17

Tin 15

Phosphor bronze 15

Lead 7

Steel 3 to 15

The table also lists gold as a good conductor. You may be aware that gold-plated contacts are sometimes used in better electronic equipment. The
reliance of gold as a conductor in this application has to do with gold’s resistance to deterioration due to oxidation,a coating that forms when a
substance chemically reacts with oxygen. You’re probably most familiar with rust as a type of oxidation that occurs when iron or steel reacts with
water and air, which of course contains oxygen. Copper becomes green when subjected to air and moisture. This green film on copper, which is
also a form of oxidation, can cause a bad electrical connection in a critical electronic circuit. Applying a thin gold plating to copper contacts helps
prevent oxidation and the resulting deteriorated electrical connection.

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