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Notes Introduction - To - Electricity

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17 views3 pages

Notes Introduction - To - Electricity

Uploaded by

stacyjumpo1
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INTRODUCTION INTO ELECTRICITY

Electricity is the flow of electrical power or charge. It is a secondary energy source which means
that we get it from the conversion of other sources of energy, like coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear
power and other natural sources, which are called primary sources. The energy sources we use
to make electricity can be renewable or non-renewable, but electricity itself is neither renewable
or non-renewable.

Electricity is a basic part of nature and it is one of our most widely used forms of energy. Many
cities and towns were built alongside waterfalls (a primary source of mechanical energy) that
turned water wheels to perform work. Before electricity generation began over 100 years ago,
houses were lit with kerosene lamps, food was cooled in iceboxes, and rooms were warmed by
wood-burning or coal-burning stoves.

Beginning with Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite one stormy night in Philadelphia, the
principles of electricity gradually became understood. Thomas Edison helped change
everyone's life -- he perfected his invention -- the electric light bulb. Prior to 1879, direct current
(DC) electricity had been used in arc lights for outdoor lighting. In the late-1800s, Nikola Tesla
pioneered the generation, transmission, and use of alternating current (AC) electricity, which can
be transmitted over much greater distances than direct current.

Tesla's inventions used electricity to bring indoor lighting to our homes and to power industrial
machines. Despite its great importance in our daily lives, most of us rarely stop to think what life
would be like without electricity. Yet like air and water, we tend to take electricity for granted.
Everyday, we use electricity to do many jobs for us -- from lighting and heating/cooling our
homes, to powering our televisions and computers. Electricity is a controllable and convenient
form of energy used in the applications of heat, light and power.
ELECTRICITY TRAVELS IN CIRCUITS

Electricity travels in closed loops, or circuits (from the word circle). It must have a complete path
before the electrons can move. If a circuit is open, the electrons cannot flow. When we flip on a
light switch, we close a circuit.

The electricity flows from the electric wire through the light and back into the wire. When we flip
the switch off, we open the circuit. No electricity flows to the light. When we turn a light switch
on, electricity flows through a tiny wire in the bulb. The wire gets very hot. It makes the gas in
the bulb glow. When the bulb burns out, the tiny wire has broken.

The path through the bulb is gone. When we turn on the TV, electricity flows through wires
inside the set, producing pictures and sound. Sometimes electricity runs motors—in washers or
mixers. Electricity does a lot of work for us. We use it many times each day.

MOVING ELECTRICITY - THE TRANSFORMER

To solve the problem of sending electricity over long distances, William Stanley developed a
device called a transformer.

The transformer allowed electricity to be efficiently transmitted over long distances. This made it
possible to supply electricity to homes and businesses located far from the electric generating
plant. The electricity produced by a generator travels along cables to a transformer, which
changes electricity from low voltage to high voltage.

Electricity can be moved long distances more efficiently using high voltage. Transmission lines
are used to carry the electricity to a substation. Substations have transformers that change the
high voltage electricity into lower voltage electricity. From the substation, distribution lines carry
the electricity to homes, offices and factories, which require low voltage electricity.

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