N I lectricity is a form of energy whose discovery led to a fundamental change in human life and civilization as we know it Without it we would have no computers or cable boxes no microwaves or motorcycles no refrigerators or radios no telephones or toasters There would be no lights no cameras and no action That s right no action Because while we may think of electricity as happening outside our bodies from the lightning that crackles across the sky to the lights we turn on with the flip of a switch our bodies themselves including that very index finger doing the switch flicking host a plethora of electric signals all the time Shocking but true The essential thing to know about electricity an the reason it occurs both naturally and as a result of our having learned to harness or generate it is that the big players involved are actually microscopically tiny particles atoms which are of course everywhere But it goes even deeper because the real stars of the electricity show are even smaller than the atom What ultimately results in the energy we call electricity comes down to movement of the smallest order
INTRODUCTION d within the atom That is movement of each atom's principal tenants a proton which has a positive electrical charge and an electron which has a negative charge Positive and negative charges which are attracted to each other try to move close together Conversely two like charges whether both positive or both negative push each other away All that OY pushing and pulling results in electricity How can we come to understand this omnipresent power Again here are two fundamental things to remember about electricity 1 It occurs naturally as in that bolt of lightning or the beat of your heart It is in fact the heart s ability to conduct electricity that keeps the blood pumping 2 Electricity can also be generated as at power plants From there it is sent through wires to your home where it powers the television the lights and anything else that plugs in It can also be stored as in the batteries inside a laptop computer a Nintendo DS or a cell
ELECTRICITY One of electricity’s brightest ideas the lightbulb has long represented the initial spark of human thought and creativity www istock photo com Bart Coenders This book offers a concise view of electricit its history and how it works Readers will discover just what causes the
INTRODUCTION sometimes hair raising power of static elec tricity as well as how electric fields work These pages also explore and explain what happens when electricity flows the relation ship between electricity and magnetism how motors and generators fit into the elec tromagnetic landscape and how centuries of discoveries both accidental and inten tional have changed our understanding of and ability to control electricity It is worth noting and is probably no accident that the visual metaphor for that most central of all human creations the idea is expressed by a lightbulb Although electricity is a form of power that has transformed everyday life it none theless often takes a power outage for us to consider just how important electricity is to everything that we do This book shows just what is behind the awesome power of those impossibly tiny particles the electron and the protonſ and how their movement is essential to life itself
