Where I am, and Where I Want To Go

ELECTRICITY

The content areas involving electricity have always been the hardest for me to fully comprehend and grasp. I understand the rote definition of electricity--that electricity is simply the flow of electrons from one place to another--and I can make simple circuits and simple electric generators if I need to, but understanding the many other applications of electricity and how they work has always been where my biggest struggle lies (see: electromagnetic induction, electric field maps, transformers, the concept of resistance.... lol etc.) I've taken enough advanced physics classes and have taught enough classes on electricity that I can get by with the basic knowledge I understand at the high school level, but I'm not satisfied with my level of understanding, and I want to improve my comprehension  of these abstract concepts.

I am a visual learner, and if I can't visualize a concept in my head, my understanding struggles. I want to be able to fully understand and visualize how the flow of electricity work and is applied in it's many everyday applications. Topics I want to study further and be able to visually comprehend are:

• AC vs. DC
• Transistors
• Transformers
• Capacitors
• Resistors
• Electromagnetism

I have already started compiling a list of helpful external resources to study, that list can be found here. I will update it as I find more!

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Visualization Flow Chart script rough draft

What is electricity??

we see electricity being used every day, to power our electronics, heating our homes, etc. but all of this is just APLICATIONS of electricity. so what is electricity really?

to understand electricity, we need to go really small, we need to GO ATOMIC!

Lets focus on atoms - the basic building blocks of matter. there are lots of different types of atoms, but we’re going to look at the element that makes up the most common material used to make electricity: copper.

“Hi! I am your simple copper atom, you can call me Cu!”

(to your eyeballs i look like this)

I am made out of CHARGED particles called Neutrons, Protons, and Electrons. 

Protons are positively charged particles, Electrons are negatively charged particles, and Neutrons are NEUTRAL, meaning they have no charge

Because I am specifically a COPPER-type atom, Inside my nucleus I have 29 neutrons and 29 protons. 

now if this was all I had, I would be very unstable, and all the positive charges inside me would be out of control! I would be electrically positive!

Luckily I have this lovely electron cloud floating around me which helps me stay nice and calm and balanced; the 29 negative electrons balance my 29 positive protons, and my overall charge becomes neutral =D=

These electrons stay floating around me due to ELECTROSTATIC FORCE, which is the attraction or repelling force between charged particles. I’ll let Mr. Coulumb explain!

negative electrons are attracted to positive protons. This force of attraction is called electrostatic force. 

just like with magnets, negative electrons REPEL other negative electrons. this force of repulsion is also called electrostatic force. Opposites attract, and likes repel!

Lastly, the closer the particles are to eachother, the greater the electrostatic force!

These guys, farthest away from Cu’s nucleus are called Valence electrons, and because they’re the farthest away from the protons, they have the weakest electrostatic force of attraction keeping them in place, 

in fact, the electrostatic force of my valence electron is so weak, that if I stand next to another copper atom, my valence electron may randomly swirl away and flow into the other Cu’s electron cloud, and their valence electron will do the same!

Furthermore, if we have a bunch of Cu atoms and stack them next to eachother, the valence electrons of each Cu will freely flow among the different atoms, randomly traveling from one atom to the next. This sea of free-flowing electrons is called an ELECTRON SEA. not all atoms have this ability, specifically only METALLIC materials create electron seas, in fact, you can SEE these free flowing charges when you look at metallic materials. The free-flowing charges are what give metals their mirror-like shine. if metals weren’t full of moveable electrons, they wouldn’t look metallic.

Now, when charged particles move from atom to atom, they create electrical energy; however, the electron jumps are random and sporadic, and so don’t create any noticeable useable electrical energy. 

To create a usable amount of electrical energy, we somehow need to make ALL the valence electrons jump to different atoms all at the same time, and KEEP them moving,

To do this, we need to make a closed circuit, and then tell the electrons where to go. (the electrons won’t flow if the wire ends). 

Once we close the circuit, we put in a battery or generator which designates one end of the wire as positive, and the other end of the wire as negative. Since the electrons are simple little things, they only care about running away from other negative charges, and towards positive charges. This battery or generator then simply acts like a closed-loop pump! and the electrons then flow, jumping from atom to atom, around the circuit over and over again. This flow of electron charges is called a CURRENT.

BATTERIES CAUSE ELECTRIC CHARGE TO FLOW it doesn't make the electrons, nor does it make electricity. 

Currents can be fast, or slow, either way, when a current is created and the charges all flow, electrical energy is created! This energy is made of invisible magnetic fields and electric fields that surround the wires.

When we connected the wire to the battery, the two halves of the wire became oppositely charged. This created an invisible ELECTROSTATIC FIELD. this electrostatic field surrounds the wire, and this field IS the electrical energy!

When an electric current is created, this creates a MAGNETIC FIELD. this magnetic field surrounds the wire, and this field also IS the electrical energy! 

These two fields overlap, and are together called Electromagnetism. The energy created by a current flowing through a circuit is contained in the electromagnetic fields in the form of electromagnetic energy.

it travels outside the wires in waves moving at the speed of light! so even if your current isn’t moving very fast, the electrical energy is.

Electromagnitism is the same kind of energy as radio waves and light, Those "EMFs" that people worry about; the invisible "EMFs" that surround wires and exist invisibly in our homes... that's the electromagnetic energy which lights our lights and runs our appliances. It certainly makes sense that it travels at the same speed as radio waves and light, since it's made of the exact same "stuff." 

and that’s electricity!