Electricity

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Lightning is one of the most dramatic effects of electricity.

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Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion

of matter that has a property of electric charge. In the early days, electricity was
considered as being unrelated to magnetism. Later on, experimental results and the
development of Maxwell's equations indicated that both electricity and magnetism are
from a single phenomenon: electromagnetism. Various common phenomena are related
to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric
discharges and many others.
The presence of an electric charge, which can be either positive or negative, produces
an electric field. The movement of electric charges is an electric current and produces
a magnetic field.
When a charge is placed in a location with a non-zero electric field, a force will act on it.
The magnitude of this force is given by Coulomb's law. Thus, if that charge were to
move, the electric field would be doing work on the electric charge. Thus we can speak
of electric potential at a certain point in space, which is equal to the work done by an
external agent in carrying a unit of positive charge from an arbitrarily chosen reference
point to that point without any acceleration and is typically measured in volts.
Electricity is at the heart of many modern technologies, being used for:

 electric power where electric current is used to energise equipment;

 electronics which deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical
components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and
associated passive interconnection technologies.
Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though progress in theoretical
understanding remained slow until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even
then, practical applications for electricity were few, and it would not be until the late
nineteenth century that electrical engineers were able to put it to industrial and
residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed
industry and society, becoming a driving force for the Second Industrial Revolution.
Electricity's extraordinary versatility means it can be put to an almost limitless set of
applications which include transport, heating, lighting, communications,
and computation. Electrical power is now the backbone of modern industrial society. [1]
 Contents

 1History
 2Concepts
o 2.1Electric charge
o 2.2Electric current
o 2.3Electric field
o 2.4Electric potential
o 2.5Electromagnets
o 2.6Electrochemistry
o 2.7Electric circuits
o 2.8Electric power
o 2.9Electronics
o 2.10Electromagnetic wave
 3Production and uses
o 3.1Generation and transmission
o 3.2Applications
 4Electricity and the natural world
o 4.1Physiological effects
o 4.2Electrical phenomena in nature
 5Cultural perception
 6See also
 7Notes
 8References
 9External links

History

Thales, the earliest known researcher into electricity

Main articles: History of electromagnetic theory and History of electrical engineering

See also: Etymology of electricity

Long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks
from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE referred to these fish as
the "Thunderer of the Nile", and described them as the "protectors" of all other fish.
Electric fish were again reported millennia later by ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic
naturalists and physicians.[2] Several ancient writers, such as Pliny the
Elder and Scribonius Largus, attested to the numbing effect of electric shocks delivered
by electric catfish and electric rays, and knew that such shocks could travel along
conducting objects.[3] Patients suffering from ailments such as gout or headache were
directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them.
[4]
 Possibly the earliest and nearest approach to the discovery of the identity of lightning,
and electricity from any other source, is to be attributed to the Arabs, who before the
15th century had the Arabic word for lightning ra‘ad (‫ )رعد‬applied to the electric ray.[5]
Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods
of amber, could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers. Thales of
Miletus made a series of observations on static electricity around 600 BCE, from which
he believed that friction rendered amber magnetic, in contrast to minerals such
as magnetite, which needed no rubbing.[6][7][8][9] Thales was incorrect in believing the
attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between
magnetism and electricity. According to a controversial theory, the Parthians may have
had knowledge of electroplating, based on the 1936 discovery of the Baghdad Battery,
which resembles a galvanic cell, though it is uncertain whether the artifact was electrical
in nature.[10]

Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research on electricity in the 18th century, as documented by Joseph
Priestley (1767) History and Present Status of Electricity, with whom Franklin carried on extended
correspondence.

Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for millennia until 1600,
when the English scientist William Gilbert wrote De Magnete, in which he made a
careful study of electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the lodestone effect from static
electricity produced by rubbing amber.[6] He coined the New Latin word electricus ("of
amber" or "like amber", from ἤλεκτρον, elektron, the Greek word for "amber") to refer to
the property of attracting small objects after being rubbed. [11] This association gave rise
to the English words "electric" and "electricity", which made their first appearance in
print in Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646.[12]
Further work was conducted in the 17th and early 18th centuries by Otto von
Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray and C. F. du Fay.[13] Later in the 18th
century, Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research in electricity, selling his
possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key
to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky. [14] A
succession of sparks jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed
that lightning was indeed electrical in nature.[15] He also explained the apparently
paradoxical behavior[16] of the Leyden jar as a device for storing large amounts of
electrical charge in terms of electricity consisting of both positive and negative charges.
[13]

Michael Faraday's discoveries formed the foundation of electric motor technology

In 1791, Luigi Galvani published his discovery of bioelectromagnetics, demonstrating

that electricity was the medium by which neurons passed signals to the muscles.[17][18]
[13]
 Alessandro Volta's battery, or voltaic pile, of 1800, made from alternating layers of
zinc and copper, provided scientists with a more reliable source of electrical energy than
the electrostatic machines previously used.[17][18] The recognition of electromagnetism, the
unity of electric and magnetic phenomena, is due to Hans Christian Ørsted and André-
Marie Ampère in 1819–1820. Michael Faraday invented the electric motor in 1821,
and Georg Ohm mathematically analysed the electrical circuit in 1827. [18] Electricity and
magnetism (and light) were definitively linked by James Clerk Maxwell, in particular in
his "On Physical Lines of Force" in 1861 and 1862.[19]
While the early 19th century had seen rapid progress in electrical science, the late 19th
century would see the greatest progress in electrical engineering. Through such people
as Alexander Graham Bell, Ottó Bláthy, Thomas Edison, Galileo Ferraris, Oliver
Heaviside, Ányos Jedlik, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Charles Algernon
Parsons, Werner von Siemens, Joseph Swan, Reginald Fessenden, Nikola
Tesla and George Westinghouse, electricity turned from a scientific curiosity into an
essential tool for modern life.
In 1887, Heinrich Hertz[20]:843–44[21] discovered that electrodes illuminated with ultraviolet light
create electric sparks more easily. In 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper that
explained experimental data from the photoelectric effect as being the result of light
energy being carried in discrete quantized packets, energising electrons. This discovery
led to the quantum revolution. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921
for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". [22] The photoelectric effect is also
employed in photocells such as can be found in solar panels and this is frequently used
to make electricity commercially.
The first solid-state device was the "cat's-whisker detector" first used in the 1900s in
radio receivers. A whisker-like wire is placed lightly in contact with a solid crystal (such
as a germanium crystal) to detect a radio signal by the contact junction effect.[23] In a
solid-state component, the current is confined to solid elements and compounds
engineered specifically to switch and amplify it. Current flow can be understood in two
forms: as negatively charged electrons, and as positively charged electron deficiencies
called holes. These charges and holes are understood in terms of quantum physics.
The building material is most often a crystalline semiconductor.[24][25]
Solid-state electronics came into its own with the emergence of transistor technology.
The first working transistor, a germanium-based point-contact transistor, was invented
by John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain at Bell Labs in 1947,[26] followed by
the bipolar junction transistor in 1948.[27] These early transistors were relatively bulky
devices that were difficult to manufacture on a mass-production basis.[28]:168 They were
followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect
transistor, or MOS transistor), invented by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell
Labs in 1959.[29][30][31] It was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturised and
mass-produced for a wide range of uses,[28]:165,179 leading to the silicon revolution.[32] Solid-
state devices started becoming prevalent from the 1960s, with the transition
from vacuum tubes to semiconductor diodes, transistors, integrated circuit (IC) chips,
MOSFETs, and light-emitting diode (LED) technology.
The most common electronic device is the MOSFET, [30][33] which has become the most
widely manufactured device in history.[34] Common solid-state MOS devices
include microprocessor chips[35] and semiconductor memory.[36][37] A special type of
semiconductor memory is flash memory, which is used in USB flash drives and mobile
devices, as well as solid-state drive (SSD) technology to replace mechanically rotating
magnetic disc hard disk drive (HDD) technology.

Concepts
Electric charge
Main article: Electric charge

See also: electron, proton, and ion

Charge on a gold-leaf electroscope causes the leaves to visibly repel each other

The presence of charge gives rise to an electrostatic force: charges exert a force on
each other, an effect that was known, though not understood, in antiquity. [20]:457 A
lightweight ball suspended from a string can be charged by touching it with a glass rod
that has itself been charged by rubbing with a cloth. If a similar ball is charged by the
same glass rod, it is found to repel the first: the charge acts to force the two balls apart.
Two balls that are charged with a rubbed amber rod also repel each other. However, if
one ball is charged by the glass rod, and the other by an amber rod, the two balls are
found to attract each other. These phenomena were investigated in the late eighteenth
century by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, who deduced that charge manifests itself in
two opposing forms. This discovery led to the well-known axiom: like-charged objects
repel and opposite-charged objects attract.[20]
The force acts on the charged particles themselves, hence charge has a tendency to
spread itself as evenly as possible over a conducting surface. The magnitude of the
electromagnetic force, whether attractive or repulsive, is given by Coulomb's law, which
relates the force to the product of the charges and has an inverse-square relation to the
distance between them.[38][39]:35 The electromagnetic force is very strong, second only in
strength to the strong interaction,[40] but unlike that force it operates over all distances.
[41]
 In comparison with the much weaker gravitational force, the electromagnetic force
pushing two electrons apart is 1042 times that of the gravitational attraction pulling them
together.[42]
Study has shown that the origin of charge is from certain types of subatomic
particles which have the property of electric charge. Electric charge gives rise to and
interacts with the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature.
The most familiar carriers of electrical charge are the electron and proton. Experiment
has shown charge to be a conserved quantity, that is, the net charge within an
electrically isolated system will always remain constant regardless of any changes
taking place within that system.[43] Within the system, charge may be transferred
between bodies, either by direct contact, or by passing along a conducting material,
such as a wire.[39]:2–5 The informal term static electricity refers to the net presence (or
'imbalance') of charge on a body, usually caused when dissimilar materials are rubbed
together, transferring charge from one to the other.
The charge on electrons and protons is opposite in sign, hence an amount of charge
may be expressed as being either negative or positive. By convention, the charge
carried by electrons is deemed negative, and that by protons positive, a custom that
originated with the work of Benjamin Franklin.[44] The amount of charge is usually given
the symbol Q and expressed in coulombs;[45] each electron carries the same charge of
approximately −1.6022×10−19 coulomb. The proton has a charge that is equal and
opposite, and thus +1.6022×10−19  coulomb. Charge is possessed not just by matter, but
also by antimatter, each antiparticle bearing an equal and opposite charge to its
corresponding particle.[46]
Charge can be measured by a number of means, an early instrument being the gold-
leaf electroscope, which although still in use for classroom demonstrations, has been
superseded by the electronic electrometer.[39]:2–5
Electric current
Main article: Electric current

The movement of electric charge is known as an electric current, the intensity of which
is usually measured in amperes. Current can consist of any moving charged particles;
most commonly these are electrons, but any charge in motion constitutes a current.
Electric current can flow through some things, electrical conductors, but will not flow
through an electrical insulator.[47]
By historical convention, a positive current is defined as having the same direction of
flow as any positive charge it contains, or to flow from the most positive part of a circuit
to the most negative part. Current defined in this manner is called conventional current.
The motion of negatively charged electrons around an electric circuit, one of the most
familiar forms of current, is thus deemed positive in the opposite direction to that of the
electrons.[48] However, depending on the conditions, an electric current can consist of a
flow of charged particles in either direction, or even in both directions at once. The
positive-to-negative convention is widely used to simplify this situation.

An electric arc provides an energetic demonstration of electric current

The process by which electric current passes through a material is termed electrical
conduction, and its nature varies with that of the charged particles and the material
through which they are travelling. Examples of electric currents include metallic
conduction, where electrons flow through a conductor such as metal, and electrolysis,
where ions (charged atoms) flow through liquids, or through plasmas such as electrical
sparks. While the particles themselves can move quite slowly, sometimes with an
average drift velocity only fractions of a millimetre per second, [39]:17 the electric field that
drives them itself propagates at close to the speed of light, enabling electrical signals to
pass rapidly along wires.[49]
Current causes several observable effects, which historically were the means of
recognising its presence. That water could be decomposed by the current from a voltaic
pile was discovered by Nicholson and Carlisle in 1800, a process now known
as electrolysis. Their work was greatly expanded upon by Michael Faraday in 1833.
Current through a resistance causes localised heating, an effect James Prescott
Joule studied mathematically in 1840.[39]:23–24 One of the most important discoveries
relating to current was made accidentally by Hans Christian Ørsted in 1820, when, while
preparing a lecture, he witnessed the current in a wire disturbing the needle of a
magnetic compass.[50] He had discovered electromagnetism, a fundamental interaction
between electricity and magnetics. The level of electromagnetic emissions generated
by electric arcing is high enough to produce electromagnetic interference, which can be
detrimental to the workings of adjacent equipment. [51]
In engineering or household applications, current is often described as being
either direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC). These terms refer to how the
current varies in time. Direct current, as produced by example from a battery and
required by most electronic devices, is a unidirectional flow from the positive part of a
circuit to the negative.[52]:11 If, as is most common, this flow is carried by electrons, they
will be travelling in the opposite direction. Alternating current is any current that reverses
direction repeatedly; almost always this takes the form of a sine wave.[52]:206–07 Alternating
current thus pulses back and forth within a conductor without the charge moving any net
distance over time. The time-averaged value of an alternating current is zero, but it
delivers energy in first one direction, and then the reverse. Alternating current is
affected by electrical properties that are not observed under steady state direct current,
such as inductance and capacitance.[52]:223–25 These properties however can become
important when circuitry is subjected to transients, such as when first energised.
Electric field
Main article: Electric field

See also: Electrostatics

The concept of the electric field was introduced by Michael Faraday. An electric field is

created by a charged body in the space that surrounds it, and results in a force exerted
on any other charges placed within the field. The electric field acts between two charges
in a similar manner to the way that the gravitational field acts between two masses, and
like it, extends towards infinity and shows an inverse square relationship with distance.
[41]
 However, there is an important difference. Gravity always acts in attraction, drawing
two masses together, while the electric field can result in either attraction or repulsion.
Since large bodies such as planets generally carry no net charge, the electric field at a
distance is usually zero. Thus gravity is the dominant force at distance in the universe,
despite being much weaker.[42]

Field lines emanating from a positive charge above a plane conductor

An electric field generally varies in space, [53] and its strength at any one point is defined
as the force (per unit charge) that would be felt by a stationary, negligible charge if
placed at that point.[20]:469–70 The conceptual charge, termed a 'test charge', must be
vanishingly small to prevent its own electric field disturbing the main field and must also
be stationary to prevent the effect of magnetic fields. As the electric field is defined in
terms of force, and force is a vector, having both magnitude and direction, so it follows
that an electric field is a vector field.[20]:469–70
The study of electric fields created by stationary charges is called electrostatics. The
field may be visualised by a set of imaginary lines whose direction at any point is the
same as that of the field. This concept was introduced by Faraday, [54] whose term 'lines
of force' still sometimes sees use. The field lines are the paths that a point positive
charge would seek to make as it was forced to move within the field; they are however
an imaginary concept with no physical existence, and the field permeates all the
intervening space between the lines. [54] Field lines emanating from stationary charges
have several key properties: first, that they originate at positive charges and terminate
at negative charges; second, that they must enter any good conductor at right angles,
and third, that they may never cross nor close in on themselves. [20]:479
A hollow conducting body carries all its charge on its outer surface. The field is therefore
zero at all places inside the body.[39]:88 This is the operating principal of the Faraday cage,
a conducting metal shell which isolates its interior from outside electrical effects.
The principles of electrostatics are important when designing items of high-
voltage equipment. There is a finite limit to the electric field strength that may be
withstood by any medium. Beyond this point, electrical breakdown occurs and
an electric arc causes flashover between the charged parts. Air, for example, tends to
arc across small gaps at electric field strengths which exceed 30 kV per centimetre.
Over larger gaps, its breakdown strength is weaker, perhaps 1 kV per centimetre.[55] The
most visible natural occurrence of this is lightning, caused when charge becomes
separated in the clouds by rising columns of air, and raises the electric field in the air to
greater than it can withstand. The voltage of a large lightning cloud may be as high as
100 MV and have discharge energies as great as 250 kWh.[56]
The field strength is greatly affected by nearby conducting objects, and it is particularly
intense when it is forced to curve around sharply pointed objects. This principle is
exploited in the lightning conductor, the sharp spike of which acts to encourage the
lightning stroke to develop there, rather than to the building it serves to protect [57]:155
Electric potential
Main article: Electric potential

See also: Voltage and Battery (electricity)

A pair of AA cells. The + sign indicates the polarity of the potential difference between the battery terminals.

The concept of electric potential is closely linked to that of the electric field. A small
charge placed within an electric field experiences a force, and to have brought that
charge to that point against the force requires work. The electric potential at any point is
defined as the energy required to bring a unit test charge from an infinite distance slowly
to that point. It is usually measured in volts, and one volt is the potential for which
one joule of work must be expended to bring a charge of one coulomb from infinity.[20]:494–
98
 This definition of potential, while formal, has little practical application, and a more
useful concept is that of electric potential difference, and is the energy required to move
a unit charge between two specified points. An electric field has the special property
that it is conservative, which means that the path taken by the test charge is irrelevant:
all paths between two specified points expend the same energy, and thus a unique
value for potential difference may be stated. [20]:494–98 The volt is so strongly identified as the
unit of choice for measurement and description of electric potential difference that the
term voltage sees greater everyday usage.
For practical purposes, it is useful to define a common reference point to which
potentials may be expressed and compared. While this could be at infinity, a much more
useful reference is the Earth itself, which is assumed to be at the same potential
everywhere. This reference point naturally takes the name earth or ground. Earth is
assumed to be an infinite source of equal amounts of positive and negative charge, and
is therefore electrically uncharged—and unchargeable. [58]
Electric potential is a scalar quantity, that is, it has only magnitude and not direction. It
may be viewed as analogous to height: just as a released object will fall through a
difference in heights caused by a gravitational field, so a charge will 'fall' across the
voltage caused by an electric field.[59] As relief maps show contour lines marking points
of equal height, a set of lines marking points of equal potential (known
as equipotentials) may be drawn around an electrostatically charged object. The
equipotentials cross all lines of force at right angles. They must also lie parallel to
a conductor's surface, otherwise this would produce a force that will move the charge
carriers to even the potential of the surface.
The electric field was formally defined as the force exerted per unit charge, but the
concept of potential allows for a more useful and equivalent definition: the electric field
is the local gradient of the electric potential. Usually expressed in volts per metre, the
vector direction of the field is the line of greatest slope of potential, and where the
equipotentials lie closest together.[39]:60
Electromagnets
Main article: Electromagnets

Magnetic field circles around a current

Ørsted's discovery in 1821 that a magnetic field existed around all sides of a wire
carrying an electric current indicated that there was a direct relationship between
electricity and magnetism. Moreover, the interaction seemed different from gravitational
and electrostatic forces, the two forces of nature then known. The force on the compass
needle did not direct it to or away from the current-carrying wire, but acted at right
angles to it.[50] Ørsted's slightly obscure words were that "the electric conflict acts in a
revolving manner." The force also depended on the direction of the current, for if the
flow was reversed, then the force did too.[60]
Ørsted did not fully understand his discovery, but he observed the effect was reciprocal:
a current exerts a force on a magnet, and a magnetic field exerts a force on a current.
The phenomenon was further investigated by Ampère, who discovered that two parallel
current-carrying wires exerted a force upon each other: two wires conducting currents in
the same direction are attracted to each other, while wires containing currents in
opposite directions are forced apart.[61] The interaction is mediated by the magnetic field
each current produces and forms the basis for the international definition of the ampere.
[61]

The electric motor exploits an important effect of electromagnetism: a current through a magnetic field
experiences a force at right angles to both the field and current

This relationship between magnetic fields and currents is extremely important, for it led
to Michael Faraday's invention of the electric motor in 1821. Faraday's homopolar
motor consisted of a permanent magnet sitting in a pool of mercury. A current was
allowed through a wire suspended from a pivot above the magnet and dipped into the
mercury. The magnet exerted a tangential force on the wire, making it circle around the
magnet for as long as the current was maintained. [62]
Experimentation by Faraday in 1831 revealed that a wire moving perpendicular to a
magnetic field developed a potential difference between its ends. Further analysis of
this process, known as electromagnetic induction, enabled him to state the principle,
now known as Faraday's law of induction, that the potential difference induced in a
closed circuit is proportional to the rate of change of magnetic flux through the loop.
Exploitation of this discovery enabled him to invent the first electrical generator in 1831,
in which he converted the mechanical energy of a rotating copper disc to electrical
energy.[62] Faraday's disc was inefficient and of no use as a practical generator, but it
showed the possibility of generating electric power using magnetism, a possibility that
would be taken up by those that followed on from his work.
Electrochemistry
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta showing his "battery" to French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in the early
19th century.

Main article: Electrochemistry

The ability of chemical reactions to produce electricity, and conversely the ability of
electricity to drive chemical reactions has a wide array of uses.
Electrochemistry has always been an important part of electricity. From the initial
invention of the Voltaic pile, electrochemical cells have evolved into the many different
types of batteries, electroplating and electrolysis cells. Aluminium is produced in vast
quantities this way, and many portable devices are electrically powered using
rechargeable cells.
Electric circuits
Main article: Electric circuit

A basic electric circuit. The voltage source V on the left drives a current I around the circuit, delivering electrical
energy into the resistor R. From the resistor, the current returns to the source, completing the circuit.

An electric circuit is an interconnection of electric components such that electric charge

is made to flow along a closed path (a circuit), usually to perform some useful task.
The components in an electric circuit can take many forms, which can include elements
such as resistors, capacitors, switches, transformers and electronics. Electronic
circuits contain active components, usually semiconductors, and typically exhibit non-
linear behaviour, requiring complex analysis. The simplest electric components are
those that are termed passive and linear: while they may temporarily store energy, they
contain no sources of it, and exhibit linear responses to stimuli. [63]:15–16
The resistor is perhaps the simplest of passive circuit elements: as its name suggests,
it resists the current through it, dissipating its energy as heat. The resistance is a
consequence of the motion of charge through a conductor: in metals, for example,
resistance is primarily due to collisions between electrons and ions. Ohm's law is a
basic law of circuit theory, stating that the current passing through a resistance is
directly proportional to the potential difference across it. The resistance of most
materials is relatively constant over a range of temperatures and currents; materials
under these conditions are known as 'ohmic'. The ohm, the unit of resistance, was
named in honour of Georg Ohm, and is symbolised by the Greek letter Ω. 1 Ω is the
resistance that will produce a potential difference of one volt in response to a current of
one amp.[63]:30–35
The capacitor is a development of the Leyden jar and is a device that can store charge,
and thereby storing electrical energy in the resulting field. It consists of two conducting
plates separated by a thin insulating dielectric layer; in practice, thin metal foils are
coiled together, increasing the surface area per unit volume and therefore
the capacitance. The unit of capacitance is the farad, named after Michael Faraday, and
given the symbol F: one farad is the capacitance that develops a potential difference of
one volt when it stores a charge of one coulomb. A capacitor connected to a voltage
supply initially causes a current as it accumulates charge; this current will however
decay in time as the capacitor fills, eventually falling to zero. A capacitor will therefore
not permit a steady state current, but instead blocks it.[63]:216–20
The inductor is a conductor, usually a coil of wire, that stores energy in a magnetic field
in response to the current through it. When the current changes, the magnetic field does
too, inducing a voltage between the ends of the conductor. The induced voltage is
proportional to the time rate of change of the current. The constant of proportionality is
termed the inductance. The unit of inductance is the henry, named after Joseph Henry,
a contemporary of Faraday. One henry is the inductance that will induce a potential
difference of one volt if the current through it changes at a rate of one ampere per
second. The inductor's behaviour is in some regards converse to that of the capacitor: it
will freely allow an unchanging current, but opposes a rapidly changing one. [63]:226–29
Electric power
Main article: electric power

Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit.

The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second.
Electric power, like mechanical power, is the rate of doing work, measured in watts, and
represented by the letter P. The term wattage is used colloquially to mean "electric
power in watts." The electric power in watts produced by an electric current I consisting
of a charge of Q coulombs every t seconds passing through an electric
potential (voltage) difference of V is
where
Q is electric charge in coulombs
t is time in seconds
I is electric current in amperes
V is electric potential or voltage in volts
Electricity generation is often done with electric generators, but can
also be supplied by chemical sources such as electric batteries or by
other means from a wide variety of sources of energy. Electric power
is generally supplied to businesses and homes by the electric power
industry. Electricity is usually sold by the kilowatt hour (3.6 MJ) which
is the product of power in kilowatts multiplied by running time in
hours. Electric utilities measure power using electricity meters, which
keep a running total of the electric energy delivered to a customer.
Unlike fossil fuels, electricity is a low entropy form of energy and can
be converted into motion or many other forms of energy with high
efficiency.[64]
Electronics
Main article: electronics

Surface mount electronic components

Electronics deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical

components such as vacuum
tubes, transistors, diodes, optoelectronics, sensors and integrated
circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies.
The nonlinear behaviour of active components and their ability to
control electron flows makes amplification of weak signals possible
and electronics is widely used in information
processing, telecommunications, and signal processing. The ability of
electronic devices to act as switches makes digital information
processing possible. Interconnection technologies such as circuit
boards, electronics packaging technology, and other varied forms of
communication infrastructure complete circuit functionality and
transform the mixed components into a regular working system.
Today, most electronic devices use semiconductor components to
perform electron control. The study of semiconductor devices and
related technology is considered a branch of solid state physics,
whereas the design and construction of electronic circuits to solve
practical problems come under electronics engineering.
Electromagnetic wave
Main article: Electromagnetic wave

Faraday's and Ampère's work showed that a time-varying magnetic

field acted as a source of an electric field, and a time-varying electric
field was a source of a magnetic field. Thus, when either field is
changing in time, then a field of the other is necessarily induced. [20]:696–
700
 Such a phenomenon has the properties of a wave, and is naturally
referred to as an electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic waves were
analysed theoretically by James Clerk Maxwell in 1864. Maxwell
developed a set of equations that could unambiguously describe the
interrelationship between electric field, magnetic field, electric charge,
and electric current. He could moreover prove that such a wave would
necessarily travel at the speed of light, and thus light itself was a form
of electromagnetic radiation. Maxwell's Laws, which unify light, fields,
and charge are one of the great milestones of theoretical physics. [20]:696–
700

Thus, the work of many researchers enabled the use of electronics to

convert signals into high frequency oscillating currents, and via
suitably shaped conductors, electricity permits the transmission and
reception of these signals via radio waves over very long distances.

Production and uses

Generation and transmission
Main article: Electricity generation

See also: Electric power transmission and Mains electricity

Early 20th-century alternator made in Budapest, Hungary, in the power generating hall
of a hydroelectric station (photograph by Prokudin-Gorsky, 1905–1915).

In the 6th century BC, the Greek philosopher Thales of

Miletus experimented with amber rods and these experiments were
the first studies into the production of electrical energy. While this
method, now known as the triboelectric effect, can lift light objects and
generate sparks, it is extremely inefficient. [65] It was not until the
invention of the voltaic pile in the eighteenth century that a viable
source of electricity became available. The voltaic pile, and its
modern descendant, the electrical battery, store energy chemically
and make it available on demand in the form of electrical energy.
[65]
 The battery is a versatile and very common power source which is
ideally suited to many applications, but its energy storage is finite, and
once discharged it must be disposed of or recharged. For large
electrical demands electrical energy must be generated and
transmitted continuously over conductive transmission lines.
Electrical power is usually generated by electro-
mechanical generators driven by steam produced from fossil
fuel combustion, or the heat released from nuclear reactions; or from
other sources such as kinetic energy extracted from wind or flowing
water. The modern steam turbine invented by Sir Charles Parsons in
1884 today generates about 80 percent of the electric power in the
world using a variety of heat sources. Such generators bear no
resemblance to Faraday's homopolar disc generator of 1831, but they
still rely on his electromagnetic principle that a conductor linking a
changing magnetic field induces a potential difference across its
ends.[66] The invention in the late nineteenth century of
the transformer meant that electrical power could be transmitted more
efficiently at a higher voltage but lower current. Efficient electrical
transmission meant in turn that electricity could be generated at
centralised power stations, where it benefited from economies of
scale, and then be despatched relatively long distances to where it
was needed.[67][68]

Wind power is of increasing importance in many countries

Since electrical energy cannot easily be stored in quantities large

enough to meet demands on a national scale, at all times exactly as
much must be produced as is required.[67] This requires electricity
utilities to make careful predictions of their electrical loads, and
maintain constant co-ordination with their power stations. A certain
amount of generation must always be held in reserve to cushion an
electrical grid against inevitable disturbances and losses.
Demand for electricity grows with great rapidity as a nation
modernises and its economy develops. The United States showed a
12% increase in demand during each year of the first three decades
of the twentieth century,[69] a rate of growth that is now being
experienced by emerging economies such as those of India or China.
[70][71]
 Historically, the growth rate for electricity demand has outstripped
that for other forms of energy.[72]:16
Environmental concerns with electricity generation have led to an
increased focus on generation from renewable sources, in particular
from wind and solar. While debate can be expected to continue over
the environmental impact of different means of electricity production,
its final form is relatively clean.[72]:89
Applications
The light bulb, an early application of electricity, operates by Joule heating: the passage
of current through resistance generating heat

Electricity is a very convenient way to transfer energy, and it has been

adapted to a huge, and growing, number of uses. [73] The invention of a
practical incandescent light bulb in the 1870s led to lighting becoming
one of the first publicly available applications of electrical power.
Although electrification brought with it its own dangers, replacing the
naked flames of gas lighting greatly reduced fire hazards within
homes and factories.[74] Public utilities were set up in many cities
targeting the burgeoning market for electrical lighting. In the late 20th
century and in modern times, the trend has started to flow in the
direction of deregulation in the electrical power sector. [75]
The resistive Joule heating effect employed in filament light bulbs also
sees more direct use in electric heating. While this is versatile and
controllable, it can be seen as wasteful, since most electrical
generation has already required the production of heat at a power
station.[76] A number of countries, such as Denmark, have issued
legislation restricting or banning the use of resistive electric heating in
new buildings.[77] Electricity is however still a highly practical energy
source for heating and refrigeration,[78] with air conditioning/heat
pumps representing a growing sector for electricity demand for
heating and cooling, the effects of which electricity utilities are
increasingly obliged to accommodate.[79]
Electricity is used within telecommunications, and indeed
the electrical telegraph, demonstrated commercially in 1837
by Cooke and Wheatstone, was one of its earliest applications. With
the construction of first intercontinental, and then transatlantic,
telegraph systems in the 1860s, electricity had enabled
communications in minutes across the globe. Optical
fibre and satellite communication have taken a share of the market for
communications systems, but electricity can be expected to remain
an essential part of the process.
The effects of electromagnetism are most visibly employed in
the electric motor, which provides a clean and efficient means of
motive power. A stationary motor such as a winch is easily provided
with a supply of power, but a motor that moves with its application,
such as an electric vehicle, is obliged to either carry along a power
source such as a battery, or to collect current from a sliding contact
such as a pantograph. Electrically powered vehicles are used in
public transportation, such as electric buses and trains, [80] and an
increasing number of battery-powered electric cars in private
ownership.
Electronic devices make use of the transistor, perhaps one of the
most important inventions of the twentieth century,[81] and a
fundamental building block of all modern circuitry. A
modern integrated circuit may contain several billion miniaturised
transistors in a region only a few centimetres square. [82]

Electricity and the natural world

Physiological effects
Main article: Electric shock

A voltage applied to a human body causes an electric current through

the tissues, and although the relationship is non-linear, the greater the
voltage, the greater the current.[83] The threshold for perception varies
with the supply frequency and with the path of the current, but is
about 0.1 mA to 1 mA for mains-frequency electricity, though a
current as low as a microamp can be detected as
an electrovibration effect under certain conditions.[84] If the current is
sufficiently high, it will cause muscle contraction, fibrillation of the
heart, and tissue burns.[83] The lack of any visible sign that a conductor
is electrified makes electricity a particular hazard. The pain caused by
an electric shock can be intense, leading electricity at times to be
employed as a method of torture. Death caused by an electric shock
is referred to as electrocution. Electrocution is still the means
of judicial execution in some jurisdictions, though its use has become
rarer in recent times.[85]
Electrical phenomena in nature
Main article: Electrical phenomena
The electric eel, Electrophorus electricus

Electricity is not a human invention, and may be observed in several

forms in nature, a prominent manifestation of which is lightning. Many
interactions familiar at the macroscopic level, such
as touch, friction or chemical bonding, are due to interactions
between electric fields on the atomic scale. The Earth's magnetic
field is thought to arise from a natural dynamo of circulating currents
in the planet's core.[86] Certain crystals, such as quartz, or even sugar,
generate a potential difference across their faces when subjected to
external pressure.[87] This phenomenon is known as piezoelectricity,
from the Greek piezein (πιέζειν), meaning to press, and was
discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie. The effect is
reciprocal, and when a piezoelectric material is subjected to an
electric field, a small change in physical dimensions takes place. [87]
§Bioelectrogenesis in microbial life is a prominent phenomenon in
soils and sediment ecology resulting from anaerobic respiration.
The microbial fuel cell mimics this ubiquitous natural phenomenon.
Some organisms, such as sharks, are able to detect and respond to
changes in electric fields, an ability known as electroreception,[88] while
others, termed electrogenic, are able to generate voltages themselves
to serve as a predatory or defensive weapon.[3] The
order Gymnotiformes, of which the best known example is the electric
eel, detect or stun their prey via high voltages generated from
modified muscle cells called electrocytes.[3][4] All animals transmit
information along their cell membranes with voltage pulses
called action potentials, whose functions include communication by
the nervous system between neurons and muscles.[89] An electric
shock stimulates this system, and causes muscles to contract.
[90]
 Action potentials are also responsible for coordinating activities in
certain plants.[89]
 Cultural perception
In 1850, William Gladstone asked the scientist Michael Faraday why
electricity was valuable. Faraday answered, “One day sir, you may
tax it.”[91]
In the 19th and early 20th century, electricity was not part of the
everyday life of many people, even in the industrialised Western
world. The popular culture of the time accordingly often depicted it as
a mysterious, quasi-magical force that can slay the living, revive the
dead or otherwise bend the laws of nature. [92] This attitude began with
the 1771 experiments of Luigi Galvani in which the legs of dead frogs
were shown to twitch on application of animal electricity.
"Revitalization" or resuscitation of apparently dead or drowned
persons was reported in the medical literature shortly after Galvani's
work. These results were known to Mary Shelley when she
authored Frankenstein (1819), although she does not name the
method of revitalization of the monster. The revitalization of monsters
with electricity later became a stock theme in horror films.
As the public familiarity with electricity as the lifeblood of the Second
Industrial Revolution grew, its wielders were more often cast in a
positive light,[93] such as the workers who "finger death at their gloves'
end as they piece and repiece the living wires" in Rudyard Kipling's
1907 poem Sons of Martha.[93] Electrically powered vehicles of every
sort featured large in adventure stories such as those of Jules
Verne and the Tom Swift books.[93] The masters of electricity, whether
fictional or real—including scientists such as Thomas Edison, Charles
Steinmetz or Nikola Tesla—were popularly conceived of as having
wizard-like powers.[93]
With electricity ceasing to be a novelty and becoming a necessity of
everyday life in the later half of the 20th century, it required particular
attention by popular culture only when it stops flowing,[93] an event that
usually signals disaster.[93] The people who keep it flowing, such as the
nameless hero of Jimmy Webb’s song "Wichita Lineman" (1968),
[93]
 are still often cast as heroic, wizard-like figures.[93]

See also

 Energy portal

 Electronics portal

 Ampère's circuital law, connects the direction of an electric current and

its associated magnetic currents.
 Electric potential energy, the potential energy of a system of charges
 Electricity market, the sale of electrical energy
 Hydraulic analogy, an analogy between the flow of water and electric
current

Notes

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References

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 Basic Concepts of Electricity chapter from Lessons In Electric Circuits

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