What's the deal with electricity? In this video, Science Facilitator Jesse shares demonstrations from his favourite Science World stage show, Electricity.
Electricity is used to operate your cell phone, power trains and ships, run your refrigerator, and power motors in machines like food processors. Electric energy must be changed to other forms of energy such as heat, light or mechanical in order to be useful.
Everything we see is made up of tiny little parts called atoms. The atoms are made of even smaller parts called protons, electrons and neutrons. An atom usually has the same number of protons (which have a positive charge) and electrons (which have a negative charge). Sometimes electrons can be moved away from their atoms. If two objects have different charges, they attract (or pull towards) each other. If two objects have the same charge, they repel (or push away) from each other. After you've combed your hair, every single hair has the same positive charge. Since things with the same charge repel each other, the hairs try to move away from each other by standing up and away from all the other hairs, resulting in you having a very funny-looking hairdo!
Try out these fun science activities that you can do at home or in the classroom. For more great, free activities, check out Electrical Energy, Static Electricity and Current Electricity on Science World Resources.