What is electricity?

We decided that almost nothing in our classroom would exist if it wasn’t for electricity. We discovered that almost everything in the class would have used electricity to get into the state it is. It has been fascinating to think about a world without it. We have started looking at how it first begun to be identified, harnessed, and created.

To understand electricity you have to look at atoms. Protons and neutrons make up the nucleus. Electrons orbit around the nucleus. The protons (positively charged) and electrons (negatively charged) want to stay together because they have opposite charges. If you have 2 electrons next to each other they try and get away from each other (repel) because they are both negatively charged.

Electrons can be torn away from an atom and when this happens that is what we call electricity.

There are two types of electricity – static and current. Static electricity is created by friction. Rubbing two materials together can knock electrons off atoms and the electrons build up on the surface of the material. They remain on the surface (are static) until they can find something positively charged to attach to. They will jump to attach themselves to a positively charged proton. This is what happens when you get a shock off a trampoline or car. It is also what happens when lightning strikes. The clouds rub together separating the electrons and protons. The electrons want to get back with some protons so they jump to the ground.

We experimented with creating static electricity and seeing if we can attract or repel materials. This wasn’t as successful as we hoped and an interesting question is why it did work really well when Mr Marquand tried it last week but not today? Humidity? We did manage to get some pretty crazy hair.

Current electricity is different from static electricity. It is what goes along power lines and what powers our houses. When an electron is split from its atom it jumps to another atom. The extra electron then forces the electron already there to jump to the next atom and a chain reaction is started.