Abstract

Where does electricity come from? How do we create it? What is the relationship between magnets and electricity? We will discuss how electricity get to our homes, and how they are wired. Lastly we will discuss the terminology for electricity.

What is electriity and how is it created.

Electricity consists of WHAT?

I think we should begin with understanding where does electricity come from. First we will see what electricity is.

So we now can see that electricity comes from the movement of electrons through conductors. We can also see how to prevent electrons from flowing via the use of the insulator.

How Magnets Produce Electricity

This is a very old video but it explains how electricity is created using magnets and wires. So excuse the somewhat dated presentation, but it is interesting how it is presented.

So now we have seen how a magnet moving over a conductor can create a flow of electrons. This is the basic principle of electric generation.

Electricy creates a Magnet

We have seen how to use a magnet to create an elecric current. But suppose you have an electric current and want to create a magnet. Lets see.

Now we can see that the flow of electricity can be used to create a magnet. This connection between a magnat and a flow of electrons is both interesting and useful as we will see.

How an AC generator produces electricity

Now that we understand how to create an electric current with a magnet, lets see how a generator produces electricity. AC generators are what the utility company uses to create the power for your home or appartment.

A galvonometer is just a meter which displays a flow of electricity from zero either positive or negative. An Electrotomotovice force for our purposes is the voltage. We will go into these terms later.

How a DC Electric Motor works

Now that we have seen how a generator creates a flow of electricity, lets see how electricity in a motor can create motion from an electric current.

Did anyone notice how similiar the DC motor was to the generator? Lets confirm our suspecion.

Electric Motor vs Electric Generator

I find this ability of truning a generator into a motor or a motor into a generator interesting. This is the basis of how electric cars accelerate and brake. But we will come back to that at a later talk.

How electricity gets from a Power plant to your outlet

So we have seen how a generator works. Most generation is done in large powerplant located away from populated areas. To get the power from the Generator to the consumer we need the electric grid.

Electric Grid

Now that we see the components we will look at how electricity is stepped up and down for transmission over the grid and to our homes.

How a transformer Works

Fuses and Circuit breakers

Electric Measurements

Now that we see how we get our electricity lets talk about how we measure electricity.


Written by John F. Moore

Last Revised: Mon Jun 26 08:33:28 PM EDT 2023

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