All our electronic devices are powered with electricity, including our smartphones, laptops, power banks,TVs, blenders, washing machine,hair dryer,Air conditioner etc.
Electricity is a form of energy that powers most of out industrial and domestic appliances. In the early centuries, mechanical energy is a source of power. Crude oil,coke and gas are burnt to power steam engines which is then used to drive trains and grinding mills.
But through advancing technology we can now produce rotary motion for electric blenders,cars and modern trains from electric motors powered by electricity.
💡Where do electricity really comes from?
Briefly, electricity comes from electrons and electrons comes from atoms. Atoms comes from molecules and molecules combines together to form a substance. Understanding where electricity comes from, we need to take a look at atoms and what they are made of.
Atoms is the simplest particle of a pure substance that can stand alone and exhibit the Chemical properties of it parent substance.
Atoms are made up of electrons,neutrons and protons. Neutrons and protons fuses together to form a massive nucleus which is then surrounded with negatively charged particles called electrons. Neutrons are neutral while protons are positively charged, and this makes the nucleus positively charged also.
A neutral atom is made up of equal number of protons and electrons, therefore the charges neutralises each other. Electrons moves on specified orbits according to their energy levels, those closest to the nucleus are strongly bond to it,hence they have high ionisation energy,buy those farthest from it are weakly bond to it, and thus can be removed easily from it orbit.
Electrons moving in the last orbit can be removed easily from its orbit with a little force to form electricity.Such force can be magnetic, photons from light and chemical energy.
When electrons are removed by forces, it is called a dislogded or valence electron, it can then be made to move through circuits to do useful work.
📚History of electricity.
Electricity was not invented but it can only be discovered, because it is a natural phenomenon.
Electricity is present in fishes,frogs, cloud and even in human brain, surprising?
It was discovered by Benjamin Franklin. He demonstrated that electricity is present in cloud when thunder strikes,i mean that is what causes thunder.With his flying kite experiment he attached a metal to the kite and connected it downwards to his hands, When the thunder struck he could feel electric shock from it.
Vividly one could know that electricity is present naturally.
There are majorly two types of electricity depending on their state of rest or motion.
>Static electricity.
In this type of electricity the charged electrons are not moving.They only stay on their source.
Electricity is produced in the sky,when postively charged and negatively charged cloud move towards each other it neutralizes each other and it produces thunder and lightning.
Static electricity can be generated by rubbing silk and glass together.
Capacitors stores electricity in form of static charges.
Common ways of generating static electricity are;
>by induction
>friction
>and by contact.
>Current Electricity.
This is the most used form of electricity.It powers your home electronics,your smartphones, laptop and even industrial machines.
This type of electricity can be generated from many sources examples are listed below.
- Solar cells
- Dynamos
- Biocells
- Batteries
- Thermocouple etc.
Furthermore, there are two classifications of electric current categoriezed according to their direction of motion.
>Direct current {DC}
>Alternating current {AC}.
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