CHAPTER ONE What Is Electricity Every day you depend on electricity At home your refrigerator television and telephones use electricity In factories machines operate with electricity At businesses elevators and cash registers run using electricity 4
Electricity that powers the world travels as an electric current An electric current is created by the flow of electrical charges To understand how this happens you need to first step inside the world of atoms 5
Atoms are the building blocks that make up matter Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space Tiny atoms form all matter They are so small that millions of atoms would fit on the head of a pin 6
Individual atoms have even smaller particles called protons electrons and neutrons An atom’s protons and neutrons are found in its center the nucleus Electrons orbit the nucleus like the planets around the Sun _ atom _ nucleus _ _ 7 _ _ _ electron neutron proton
