MSE+803+Electricity

=//__Essential Questions__ //=

 What is electricity and how is it generated? How does electricity relate to our daily lives? How are the necessary parts of an electrical circuit organized? How is current electricity produced and how does it move?


Electricity is simply the flowing of an electrical charge or power. It is man-made and one of our most widely used forms of energy and it is also a basic part of nature. Electricity is an energy carrier, otherwise known as a secondary energy source. That means that we get electricity from converting other primary sources sources of energy, such as wind, coal, nuclear, or solar. The energy sources we use to make electricity can be renewable or non-renewable, but electricity itself is neither renewable or nonrenewable. To learn the history of electricity, check out this website: [|History of Electricity] 
 * What is electricity?**


 * How is electricity generated?**

Electricity is hard to explain since it is something we cannot see. Since the electrons, which it is made of, are so small, electricity is an 'invisible force'. However, we can see the results of electricity's power by what electricity does. To help understand electricity, we must learn how it is made and how it is used. Everything in the world is electrical because all matter in the world is made up of atoms. Every atom is made up of a number of electrons and protons which are 'particles' of electricity. Once we have generated electricity we can make it do almost anything for us.

How do electricity generators work? Most people say that electricity is 'made' by a generator, but a generator does not actually 'make' electricity. A generator simply changes one form of energy - for example the power from wind or solar energy - into another form of energy called electricity. We generate electricity because even though there is plenty of energy in wind or solar, we can't use that energy to run our refrigerators or light our homes.

Generators can be very small or very large, but they all work on the same principle discovered in 1831 by the English physicist, Michael Faraday. Faraday found that he could produce electricity in a coil of copper wire by moving it near a magnet. When this happens very quickly - when a loop of copper wire is spun between the north and south poles of a magnet - electricity is said to be 'induced' in the wire. The machines in power stations that are used to drive the electrical generators are called turbines. The turbines must be turned by some existing energy which the generator will convert to electricity. Electric power generated at power plants moves to substations by transmission lines — large, high-voltage power lines - to houses, factories and offices that are hundreds or thousands of miles away from the original source of energy. In the United States, the network of nearly 160,000 miles of high voltage transmission lines is known as the "grid. A local distribution system of smaller, lower-voltage distribution lines moves power from substations and transformers to customers.



 picture from: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/hyhowworks.html 

There are three main sources of natural energy used to turn generator turbines known as primary, recurring and non-renewable sources of energy.
 * 1) Primary sources are thermonuclear reaction, nuclear fission and radioactivity.
 * 2) Recurring sources include solar energy, natural thermal energy, wind and moving water.
 * 3) Non-renewable sources include natural gas, coal and oil (fossil fuels).

 Examples of Natural Energy Sources: Water, Wind, Solar

====A **conductor** is a material that has free electrons and electricity can flow through easily. Since metals such as aluminum and copper are great conductors, electrical wires are made out of metals. Water is also a good conductor.====

** Insulators** are materials with few or no free electrons, so they do NOT allow electricity to flow through them easily. Some common insulators are rubber, glass, air, wood and plastic.
 Find out more information on conductors and insulators at the following:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|NDT Resource Center]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Utah State Department of Education]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|PBS]

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">media type="custom" key="4603914" align="center" =

=__Circuits__= When you flip a light switch on and off, you are closing and opening a circuit. A circuit is the path that electricity follows. For electrons to travel (creating an electric current), the circuit must be closed. When you flip the light switch off, you are opening the circuit and the lights turn off. When you flip the switch on, the circuit it closed and the lights come on. Let's take a closer look at circuits. ..

Here are common circuit parts along with how the part is drawn in a circuit diagram:





A series circuit allows electrons to follow only one path. All of the electricity follows path #1. The loads in a series circuit must share the available voltage. In other words, each load in a series circuit will use up some portion of the voltage, leaving less for the next load in the circuit. This means that the light, heat, or sound given off by the device will be reduced.
 * Series Circuits**


 * Parallel Circuits** In parallel circuits, the electric current can follow more than one path to return to the source, so it splits up among all the available paths. In the diagram, some current follows path #1, while the remainder splits off from #1 and follows path #2. Across all the paths in a parallel circuit the voltage is the same, so each device will produce its full output.

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<span style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;"> **AC/DC: What's the Difference?** In 1887 direct current (DC) was king. At that time there were 121 Edison power stations scattered across the United States delivering DC electricity to its customers. But DC had a great limitation -- namely, that power plants could only send DC electricity about a mile before the electricity began to lose power. So when George Westinghouse introduced his system based on high-voltage alternating current (AC), which could carry electricity hundreds of miles with little loss of power, people naturally took notice. A "battle of the currents" ensued. In the end, Westinghouse's AC prevailed.


 * [[image:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/sfeature/images/acdc_all_off.gif width="163" height="195" align="left"]] || <span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;">

Find out more by playing the AC/DC simulation at the following **: [|AC / DC Simulation]** ||

__** Electricity and Energy Games **__

[|The Lorax Energy Sleuth Game]

[|FOSS Knife Switch]

[|The Blobz Guide to Electricity] [| Educypedia]

[|The "Atom's" Family]

[|Gamequarium Electricity]

__**Resources Utilized to Create Wiki <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"> **__
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"> FOSS Magnetism and Electricity Teachers Manual

Conceptual Physics Seventh Addition

NASA Website: http://scifiles.larc.nasa.gov/text/kids/Problem_Board/problems/electricity/circuits2.html

FOSSweb.com

Schneider Electric Website: http://www.schneider-electric.ca/www/en/html/house.htm Mercury Energy Website: http://www.mercury.co.nz/education/education_whatisenergy_wheredoeselectricitycomefrom.asp