Monday, September 21, 2009

What is Electricity?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, electricity is defined as a fundamental form of energy observable in positive and negative forms that occurs naturally (as in lightning) or is produced (as in a generator) and that is expressed in terms of the movement and interaction of electrons. This is important to humans in that since people are able to harness the manipulation of the way electrons move, they can activate objects that normally would be unable to be active without power.
Electricity-fin.jpg
In the above image, it is the movement of the electrons from one place to the other that is actually visible, creating the flash and lighting up the bulb.
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4 comments:

  1. Marc TSeptember 21, 2009 at 10:24 PM

    The innovation of electricity has been fundamental to the growth of societies. Being U.S. citizens many of us may take for granted the usefulness of all the things around us powered by electricity. It is incredible to think that people and cultures survive without any electricity.

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  2. Isiejah AllenSeptember 21, 2009 at 11:12 PM

    Interesting post. However, I wonder what would life be like without electricity. Less or more complicated? More daily activities since we would have to take advantage of daylight? I wonder how that would affect media and its evolution..?

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  3. UnknownSeptember 21, 2009 at 11:35 PM

    As "new age" people, we cannot normally fathom living without electricity like they did years ago. Life would be lived simpler without electricity, but then again we have become so accustomed to having it that without it we would not be able to "function". If we think about the simplicity of life before electricity, we can only imagine living in front of oil powered lights and being pulled around by horse & buggy.

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  4. Lance StrateSeptember 22, 2009 at 10:10 PM

    What happened to the image in this post?

    I think it's interesting to note that, in respect to your explanation, that electricity was "discovered" (what we mean by "discovered" is itself open to some question) well before the electron was.

    And it is quite true that electricity is the defining technology of our age, underlying much of what we do, of our way of life.

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