Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric

charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by
Maxwell's equations. Common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric
heating, electric discharges and many others.

The presence of either a positive or negative electric charge produces an electric field. The motion of electric charges
is an electric current and produces a magnetic field. In most applications, Coulomb's law determines the force acting
on an electric charge. Electric potential is the work done to move an electric charge from one point to another within
an electric field, typically measured in volts.

Electricity plays a central role in many modern technologies, serving in electric power where electric current is used
to energise equipment, and in electronics dealing with electrical circuits involving active components such as vacuum
tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies.

The study of electrical phenomena dates back to antiquity, with theoretical understanding progressing slowly until
the 17th and 18th centuries. The development of the theory of electromagnetism in the 19th century marked
significant progress, leading to electricity's industrial and residential application by electrical engineers by the
century's end. This rapid expansion in electrical technology at the time was the driving force behind the Second
Industrial Revolution, with electricity's versatility driving transformations in both industry and society. Electricity is
integral to applications spanning transport, heating, lighting, communications, and computation, making it the
foundation of modern industrial society.[1]
History
A bust of a bearded man with dishevelled hair
Thales, the earliest known researcher into electricity
Main articles: History of electromagnetic theory and History of electrical engineering
See also: Etymology of electricity

Long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian
texts dating from 2750 BCE described them as the "protectors" of all other fish. Electric fish were again reported
millennia later by ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic naturalists and physicians.[2] Several ancient writers, such as
Pliny the Elder and Scribonius Largus, attested to the numbing effect of electric shocks delivered by electric catfish
and electric rays, and knew that such shocks could travel along conducting objects.[3] Patients with ailments such as
gout or headache were directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them.[4]

Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, could be rubbed with
cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers. Thales of Miletus made a series of observations on static electricity
around 600 BCE, from which he believed that friction rendered amber magnetic, in contrast to minerals such as
magnetite, which needed no rubbing.[5][6][7][8] Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a
magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. According to a controversial
theory, the Parthians may have had knowledge of electroplating, based on the 1936 discovery of the Baghdad
Battery, which resembles a galvanic cell, though it is uncertain whether the artifact was electrical in nature.[9]
A half-length portrait of a bald, somewhat portly man in a three-piece suit.
Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research on electricity in the 18th century, as documented by Joseph
Priestley (1767) History and Present Status of Electricity, with whom Franklin carried on extended correspondence.

Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for millennia until 1600, when the English scientist
William Gilbert wrote De Magnete, in which he made a careful study of electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the
lodestone effect from static electricity produced by rubbing amber.[5] He coined the Neo-Latin word electricus ("of
amber" or "like amber", from ἤλεκτρον, elektron, the Greek word for "amber") to refer to the property of attracting
small objects after being rubbed.[10] This association gave rise to the English words "electric" and "electricity", which
made their first appearance in print in Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646.[11]

Further work was conducted in the 17th and early 18th centuries by Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray
and C. F. du Fay.[12] Later in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research in electricity, selling
his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a
dampened kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky.[13] A succession of sparks jumping from the key
to the back of his hand showed that lightning was indeed electrical in nature.[14] He also explained the apparently
paradoxical behavior[15] of the Leyden jar as a device for storing large amounts of electrical charge in terms of
electricity consisting of both positive and negative charges.[12]
Half-length portrait oil painting of a man in a dark suit
Michael Faraday's discoveries formed the foundation of electric motor technology.

In 1775, Hugh Williamson reported a series of experiments to the Royal Society on the shocks delivered by the
electric eel;[16] that same year the surgeon and anatomist John Hunter described the structure of the fish's electric
organs.[17][18] In 1791, Luigi Galvani published his discovery of bioelectromagnetics, demonstrating that electricity
was the medium by which neurons passed signals to the muscles.[19][20][12] Alessandro Volta's battery, or voltaic
pile, of 1800, made from alternating layers of zinc and copper, provided scientists with a more reliable source of
electrical energy than the electrostatic machines previously used.[19][20] The recognition of electromagnetism, the
unity of electric and magnetic phenomena, is due to Hans Christian Ørsted and André-Marie Ampère in 1819–1820.
Michael Faraday invented the electric motor in 1821, and Georg Ohm mathematically analysed the electrical circuit in
1827.[20] Electricity and magnetism (and light) were definitively linked by James Clerk Maxwell, in particular in his
"On Physical Lines of Force" in 1861 and 1862.[21]: 148

While the early 19th century had seen rapid progress in electrical science, the late 19th century would see the
greatest progress in electrical engineering. Through such people as Alexander Graham Bell, Ottó Bláthy, Thomas
Edison, Galileo Ferraris, Oliver Heaviside, Ányos Jedlik, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Charles Algernon Parsons,
Werner von Siemens, Joseph Swan, Reginald Fessenden, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, electricity turned
from a scientific curiosity into an essential tool for modern life.[22]

In 1887, Heinrich Hertz[23]: 843–44 [24] discovered that electrodes illuminated with ultraviolet light create electric
sparks more easily. In 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper that explained experimental data from the
photoelectric effect as being the result of light energy being carried in discrete quantized packets, energising
electrons. This discovery led to the quantum revolution. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for
"his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".[25] The photoelectric effect is also employed in photocells such
as can be found in solar panels.

The first solid-state device was the "cat's-whisker detector" first used in the 1900s in radio receivers. A whisker-like
wire is placed lightly in contact with a solid crystal (such as a germanium crystal) to detect a radio signal by the
contact junction effect.[26] In a solid-state component, the current is confined to solid elements and compounds
engineered specifically to switch and amplify it. Current flow can be understood in two forms: as negatively charged
electrons, and as positively charged electron deficiencies called holes. These charges and holes are understood in
terms of quantum physics. The building material is most often a crystalline semiconductor.[27][28]

Solid-state electronics came into its own with the emergence of transistor technology. The first working transistor, a
germanium-based point-contact transistor, was invented by John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain at Bell Labs in
1947,[29] followed by the bipolar junction transistor in 1948.[30]
Concepts
Electric charge
Main article: Electric charge
See also: Electron, Proton, and Ion
A clear glass dome has an external electrode which connects through the glass to a pair of gold leaves. A charged rod
touches the external electrode and makes the leaves repel.
Charge on a gold-leaf electroscope causes the leaves to visibly repel each other

By modern convention, the charge carried by electrons is defined as negative, and that by protons is positive.[31]
Before these particles were discovered, Benjamin Franklin had defined a positive charge as being the charge acquired
by a glass rod when it is rubbed with a silk cloth.[32] A proton by definition carries a charge of exactly
1.602176634×10−19 coulombs. This value is also defined as the elementary charge. No object can have a charge
smaller than the elementary charge, and any amount of charge an object may carry is a multiple of the elementary
charge. An electron has an equal negative charge, i.e. −1.602176634×10−19 coulombs. Charge is possessed not just
by matter, but also by antimatter, each antiparticle bearing an equal and opposite charge to its corresponding
particle.[33]

The presence of charge gives rise to an electrostatic force: charges exert a force on each other, an effect that was
known, though not understood, in antiquity.[23]: 457 A lightweight ball suspended by a fine thread can be charged
by touching it with a glass rod that has itself been charged by rubbing with a cloth. If a similar ball is charged by the
same glass rod, it is found to repel the first: the charge acts to force the two balls apart. Two balls that are charged
with a rubbed amber rod also repel each other. However, if one ball is charged by the glass rod, and the other by an
amber rod, the two balls are found to attract each other. These phenomena were investigated in the late eighteenth
century by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, who deduced that charge manifests itself in two opposing forms. This
discovery led to the well-known axiom: like-charged objects repel and opposite-charged objects attract.[23]

The force acts on the charged particles themselves, hence charge has a tendency to spread itself as evenly as possible
over a conducting surface. The magnitude of the electromagnetic force, whether attractive or repulsive, is given by
Coulomb's law, which relates the force to the product of the charges and has an inverse-square relation to the
distance between them.[34][35]: 35 The electromagnetic force is very strong, second only in strength to the strong
interaction,[36] but unlike that force it operates over all distances.[37] In comparison with the much weaker
gravitational force, the electromagnetic force pushing two electrons apart is 1042 times that of the gravitational
attraction pulling them together.[38]

Charge originates from certain types of subatomic particles, the most familiar carriers of which are the electron and
proton. Electric charge gives rise to and interacts with the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces
of nature. Experiment has shown charge to be a conserved quantity, that is, the net charge within an electrically
isolated system will always remain constant regardless of any changes taking place within that system.[39] Within the
system, charge may be transferred between bodies, either by direct contact, or by passing along a conducting
material, such as a wire.[35]: 2–5 The informal term static electricity refers to the net presence (or 'imbalance') of
charge on a body, usually caused when dissimilar materials are rubbed together, transferring charge from one to the
other.

Charge can be measured by a number of means, an early instrument being the gold-leaf electroscope, which
although still in use for classroom demonstrations, has been superseded by the electronic electrometer.[35]: 2–5
Electric current
Main article: Electric current

The movement of electric charge is known as an electric current, the intensity of which is usually measured in
amperes. Current can consist of any moving charged particles; most commonly these are electrons, but any charge in
motion constitutes a current. Electric current can flow through some things, electrical conductors, but will not flow
through an electrical insulator.[40]

By historical convention, a positive current is defined as having the same direction of flow as any positive charge it
contains, or to flow from the most positive part of a circuit to the most negative part. Current defined in this manner
is called conventional current. The motion of negatively charged electrons around an electric circuit, one of the most
familiar forms of current, is thus deemed positive in the opposite direction to that of the electrons.[41] However,
depending on the conditions, an electric current can consist of a flow of charged particles in either direction, or even
in both directions at once. The positive-to-negative convention is widely used to simplify this situation.
Two metal wires form an inverted V shape. A blindingly bright orange-white electric arc flows between their tips.
An electric arc provides an energetic demonstration of electric current.

The process by which electric current passes through a material is termed electrical conduction, and its nature varies
with that of the charged particles and the material through which they are travelling. Examples of electric currents
include metallic conduction, where electrons flow through a conductor such as metal, and electrolysis, where ions
(charged atoms) flow through liquids, or through plasmas such as electrical sparks. While the particles themselves
can move quite slowly, sometimes with an average drift velocity only fractions of a millimetre per second,[35]: 17 the
electric field that drives them itself propagates at close to the speed of light, enabling electrical signals to pass rapidly
along wires.[42]

Current causes several observable effects, which historically were the means of recognising its presence. That water
could be decomposed by the current from a voltaic pile was discovered by Nicholson and Carlisle in 1800, a process
now known as electrolysis. Their work was greatly expanded upon by Michael Faraday in 1833. Current through a
resistance causes localised heating, an effect James Prescott Joule studied mathematically in 1840.[35]: 23–24 One of
the most important discoveries relating to current was made accidentally by Hans Christian Ørsted in 1820, when,
while preparing a lecture, he witnessed the current in a wire disturbing the needle of a magnetic
compass.[21]: 370 [a] He had discovered electromagnetism, a fundamental interaction between electricity and
magnetics. The level of electromagnetic emissions generated by electric arcing is high enough to produce
electromagnetic interference, which can be detrimental to the workings of adjacent equipment.[43]

In engineering or household applications, current is often described as being either direct current (DC) or alternating
current (AC). These terms refer to how the current varies in time. Direct current, as produced by example from a
battery and required by most electronic devices, is a unidirectional flow from the positive part of a circuit to the
negative.[44]: 11 If, as is most common, this flow is carried by electrons, they will be travelling in the opposite
direction. Alternating current is any current that reverses direction repeatedly; almost always this takes the form of a
sine wave.[44]: 206–07 Alternating current thus pulses back and forth within a conductor without the charge moving
any net distance over time. The time-averaged value of an alternating current is zero, but it delivers energy in first
one direction, and then the reverse. Alternating current is affected by electrical properties that are not observed
under steady state direct current, such as inductance and capacitance.[44]: 223–25 These properties however can
become important when circuitry is subjected to transients, such as when first energised.
Electric field
Main article: Electric field
See also: Electrostatics

The concept of the electric field was introduced by Michael Faraday. An electric field is created by a charged body in
the space that surrounds it, and results in a force exerted on any other charges placed within the field. The electric
field acts between two charges in a similar manner to the way that the gravitational field acts between two masses,
and like it, extends towards infinity and shows an inverse square relationship with distance.[37] However, there is an
important difference. Gravity always acts in attraction, drawing two masses together, while the electric field can
result in either attraction or repulsion. Since large bodies such as planets generally carry no net charge, the electric
field at a distance is usually zero. Thus gravity is the dominant force at distance in the universe, despite being much
weaker.[38]
Field lines emanating from a positive charge above a plane conductor

An electric field generally varies in space,[b] and its strength at any one point is defined as the force (per unit charge)
that would be felt by a stationary, negligible charge if placed at that point.[23]: 469–70 The conceptual charge,
termed a 'test charge', must be vanishingly small to prevent its own electric field disturbing the main field and must
also be stationary to prevent the effect of magnetic fields. As the electric field is defined in terms of force, and force
is a vector, having both magnitude and direction, it follows that an electric field is a vector field.[23]: 469–70

The study of electric fields created by stationary charges is called electrostatics. The field may be visualised by a set of
imaginary lines whose direction at any point is the same as that of the field. This concept was introduced by
Faraday,[45] whose term 'lines of force' still sometimes sees use. The field lines are the paths that a point positive
charge would seek to make as it was forced to move within the field; they are however an imaginary concept with no
physical existence, and the field permeates all the intervening space between the lines.[45] Field lines emanating
from stationary charges have several key properties: first, that they originate at positive charges and terminate at
negative charges; second, that they must enter any good conductor at right angles, and third, that they may never
cross nor close in on themselves.[23]: 479
A hollow conducting body carries all its charge on its outer surface. The field is therefore 0 at all places inside the
body.[35]: 88 This is the operating principal of the Faraday cage, a conducting metal shell which isolates its interior
from outside electrical effects.

The principles of electrostatics are important when designing items of high-voltage equipment. There is a finite limit
to the electric field strength that may be withstood by any medium. Beyond this point, electrical breakdown occurs
and an electric arc causes flashover between the charged parts. Air, for example, tends to arc across small gaps at
electric field strengths which exceed 30 kV per centimetre. Over larger gaps, its breakdown strength is weaker,
perhaps 1 kV per centimetre.[46]: 2 The most visible natural occurrence of this is lightning, caused when charge
becomes separated in the clouds by rising columns of air, and raises the electric field in the air to greater than it can
withstand. The voltage of a large lightning cloud may be as high as 100 MV and have discharge energies as great as
250 kWh.[46]: 201–02

The field strength is greatly affected by nearby conducting objects, and it is particularly intense when it is forced to
curve around sharply pointed objects. This principle is exploited in the lightning conductor, the sharp spike of which
acts to encourage the lightning strike to develop there, rather than to the building it serves to protect.[47]: 155
Electric potential
Main article: Electric potential
See also: Voltage and Electric battery
Two AA batteries each have a plus sign marked at one end.
A pair of AA cells. The + sign indicates the polarity of the potential difference between the battery terminals.

The concept of electric potential is closely linked to that of the electric field. A small charge placed within an electric
field experiences a force, and to have brought that charge to that point against the force requires work. The electric
potential at any point is defined as the energy required to bring a unit test charge from an infinite distance slowly to
that point. It is usually measured in volts, and one volt is the potential for which one joule of work must be expended
to bring a charge of one coulomb from infinity.[23]: 494–98 This definition of potential, while formal, has little
practical application, and a more useful concept is that of electric potential difference, and is the energy required to
move a unit charge between two specified points. An electric field has the special property that it is conservative,
which means that the path taken by the test charge is irrelevant: all paths between two specified points expend the
same energy, and thus a unique value for potential difference may be stated.[23]: 494–98 The volt is so strongly
identified as the unit of choice for measurement and description of electric potential difference that the term voltage
sees greater everyday usage.

For practical purposes, defining a common reference point to which potentials may be expressed and compared is
useful. While this could be at infinity, a much more useful reference is the Earth itself, which is assumed to be at the
same potential everywhere. This reference point naturally takes the name earth or ground. Earth is assumed to be an
infinite source of equal amounts of positive and negative charge and is therefore electrically uncharged—and
unchargeable.[48]

Electric potential is a scalar quantity. That is, it has only magnitude and not direction. It may be viewed as analogous
to height: just as a released object will fall through a difference in heights caused by a gravitational field, so a charge
will 'fall' across the voltage caused by an electric field.[49] As relief maps show contour lines marking points of equal
height, a set of lines marking points of equal potential (known as equipotentials) may be drawn around an
electrostatically charged object. The equipotentials cross all lines of force at right angles. They must also lie parallel
to a conductor's surface, since otherwise there would be a force along the surface of the conductor that would move
the charge carriers to even the potential across the surface.

The electric field was formally defined as the force exerted per unit charge, but the concept of potential allows for a
more useful and equivalent definition: the electric field is the local gradient of the electric potential. Usually
expressed in volts per metre, the vector direction of the field is the line of greatest slope of potential, and where the
equipotentials lie closest together.[35]: 60
Electromagnets
Main article: Electromagnets
A wire carries a current towards the reader. Concentric circles representing the magnetic field circle anticlockwise
around the wire, as viewed by the reader.
Magnetic field circles around a current

Ørsted's discovery in 1821 that a magnetic field existed around all sides of a wire carrying an electric current
indicated that there was a direct relationship between electricity and magnetism. Moreover, the interaction seemed
different from gravitational and electrostatic forces, the two forces of nature then known. The force on the compass
needle did not direct it to or away from the current-carrying wire, but acted at right angles to it.[21]: 370 Ørsted's
words were that "the electric conflict acts in a revolving manner." The force also depended on the direction of the
current, for if the flow was reversed, then the force did too.[50]

Ørsted did not fully understand his discovery, but he observed the effect was reciprocal: a current exerts a force on a
magnet, and a magnetic field exerts a force on a current. The phenomenon was further investigated by Ampère, who
discovered that two parallel current-carrying wires exerted a force upon each other: two wires conducting currents in
the same direction are attracted to each other, while wires containing currents in opposite directions are forced
apart.[51] The interaction is mediated by the magnetic field each current produces and forms the basis for the
international definition of the ampere.[51]
A cut-away diagram of a small electric motor
The electric motor exploits an important effect of electromagnetism: a current through a magnetic field experiences
a force at right angles to both the field and current.

This relationship between magnetic fields and currents is extremely important, for it led to Michael Faraday's
invention of the electric motor in 1821. Faraday's homopolar motor consisted of a permanent magnet sitting in a
pool of mercury. A current was allowed through a wire suspended from a pivot above the magnet and dipped into
the mercury. The magnet exerted a tangential force on the wire, making it circle around the magnet for as long as the
current was maintained.[52]

Experimentation by Faraday in 1831 revealed that a wire moving perpendicular to a magnetic field developed a
potential difference between its ends. Further analysis of this process, known as electromagnetic induction, enabled
him to state the principle, now known as Faraday's law of induction, that the potential difference induced in a closed
circuit is proportional to the rate of change of magnetic flux through the loop. Exploitation of this discovery enabled
him to invent the first electrical generator in 1831, in which he converted the mechanical energy of a rotating copper
disc to electrical energy.[52] Faraday's disc was inefficient and of no use as a practical generator, but it showed the
possibility of generating electric power using magnetism, a possibility that would be taken up by those that followed
on from his work.[53]
Electric circuits
Main article: Electric circuit
refer to caption
A basic electric circuit. The voltage source V on the left drives a current I around the circuit, delivering electrical
energy into the resistor R. From the resistor, the current returns to the source, completing the circuit.

An electric circuit is an interconnection of electric components such that electric charge is made to flow along a
closed path (a circuit), usually to perform some useful task.[54]

The components in an electric circuit can take many forms, which can include elements such as resistors, capacitors,
switches, transformers and electronics. Electronic circuits contain active components, usually semiconductors, and
typically exhibit non-linear behaviour, requiring complex analysis. The simplest electric components are those that
are termed passive and linear: while they may temporarily store energy, they contain no sources of it, and exhibit
linear responses to stimuli.[55]: 15–16

The resistor is perhaps the simplest of passive circuit elements: as its name suggests, it resists the current through it,
dissipating its energy as heat. The resistance is a consequence of the motion of charge through a conductor: in
metals, for example, resistance is primarily due to collisions between electrons and ions. Ohm's law is a basic law of
circuit theory, stating that the current passing through a resistance is directly proportional to the potential difference
across it. The resistance of most materials is relatively constant over a range of temperatures and currents; materials
under these conditions are known as 'ohmic'. The ohm, the unit of resistance, was named in honour of Georg Ohm,
and is symbolised by the Greek letter Ω. 1 Ω is the resistance that will produce a potential difference of one volt in
response to a current of one amp.[55]: 30–35

The capacitor is a development of the Leyden jar and is a device that can store charge, and thereby storing electrical
energy in the resulting field. It consists of two conducting plates separated by a thin insulating dielectric layer; in
practice, thin metal foils are coiled together, increasing the surface area per unit volume and therefore the
capacitance. The unit of capacitance is the farad, named after Michael Faraday, and given the symbol F: one farad is
the capacitance that develops a potential difference of one volt when it stores a charge of one coulomb. A capacitor
connected to a voltage supply initially causes a current as it accumulates charge; this current will however decay in
time as the capacitor fills, eventually falling to zero. A capacitor will therefore not permit a steady state current, but
instead blocks it.[55]: 216–20

The inductor is a conductor, usually a coil of wire, that stores energy in a magnetic field in response to the current
through it. When the current changes, the magnetic field does too, inducing a voltage between the ends of the
conductor. The induced voltage is proportional to the time rate of change of the current. The constant of
proportionality is termed the inductance. The unit of inductance is the henry, named after Joseph Henry, a
contemporary of Faraday. One henry is the inductance that will induce a potential difference of one volt if the current
through it changes at a rate of one ampere per second. The inductor's behaviour is in some regards converse to that
of the capacitor: it will freely allow an unchanging current, but opposes a rapidly changing one.[55]: 226–29
Electric power
Main article: electric power

Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt,
one joule per second.

Electric power, like mechanical power, is the rate of doing work, measured in watts, and represented by the letter P.
The term wattage is used colloquially to mean "electric power in watts." The electric power in watts produced by an
electric current I consisting of a charge of Q coulombs every t seconds passing through an electric potential (voltage)
difference of V is

P = work done per unit time = Q V t = I V {\displaystyle P={\text{work done per unit time}}={\frac {QV}{t}}=IV\,}

where

Q is electric charge in coulombs

t is time in seconds
I is electric current in amperes
V is electric potential or voltage in volts

Electric power is generally supplied to businesses and homes by the electric power industry. Electricity is usually sold
by the kilowatt hour (3.6 MJ) which is the product of power in kilowatts multiplied by running time in hours. Electric
utilities measure power using electricity meters, which keep a running total of the electric energy delivered to a
customer. Unlike fossil fuels, electricity is a low entropy form of energy and can be converted into motion or many
other forms of energy with high efficiency.[56]
Electronics
Main article: electronics
Surface-mount electronic components

Electronics deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors,
diodes, sensors and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies.[57]: 1–5, 71 The
nonlinear behaviour of active components and their ability to control electron flows makes digital switching
possible,[57]: 75 and electronics is widely used in information processing, telecommunications, and signal
processing. Interconnection technologies such as circuit boards, electronics packaging technology, and other varied
forms of communication infrastructure complete circuit functionality and transform the mixed components into a
regular working system.

Today, most electronic devices use semiconductor components to perform electron control. The underlying principles
that explain how semiconductors work are studied in solid state physics,[58] whereas the design and construction of
electronic circuits to solve practical problems are part of electronics engineering.[59]
Electromagnetic wave
Main article: Electromagnetic wave

Faraday's and Ampère's work showed that a time-varying magnetic field created an electric field, and a time-varying
electric field created a magnetic field. Thus, when either field is changing in time, a field of the other is always
induced.[23]: 696–700 These variations are an electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic waves were analysed
theoretically by James Clerk Maxwell in 1864. Maxwell developed a set of equations that could unambiguously
describe the interrelationship between electric field, magnetic field, electric charge, and electric current. He could
moreover prove that in a vacuum such a wave would travel at the speed of light, and thus light itself was a form of
electromagnetic radiation. Maxwell's equations, which unify light, fields, and charge are one of the great milestones
of theoretical physics.[23]: 696–700

The work of many researchers enabled the use of electronics to convert signals into high frequency oscillating
currents and, via suitably shaped conductors, electricity permits the transmission and reception of these signals via
radio waves over very long distances.[60]
Production, storage and uses
Generation and transmission
Main article: Electricity generation
See also: Electric power transmission and Mains electricity
Early 20th-century alternator made in Budapest, Hungary, in the power generating hall of a hydroelectric station
(photograph by Prokudin-Gorsky, 1905–1915).

In the 6th century BC the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus experimented with amber rods: these were the first
studies into the production of electricity. While this method, now known as the triboelectric effect, can lift light
objects and generate sparks, it is extremely inefficient.[61] It was not until the invention of the voltaic pile in the
eighteenth century that a viable source of electricity became available. The voltaic pile, and its modern descendant,
the electrical battery, store energy chemically and make it available on demand in the form of electricity.[61]

Electrical power is usually generated by electro-mechanical generators. These can be driven by steam produced from
fossil fuel combustion or the heat released from nuclear reactions, but also more directly from the kinetic energy of
wind or flowing water. The steam turbine invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884 is still used to convert the thermal
energy of steam into a rotary motion that can be used by electro-mechanical generators. Such generators bear no
resemblance to Faraday's homopolar disc generator of 1831, but they still rely on his electromagnetic principle that a
conductor linking a changing magnetic field induces a potential difference across its ends.[62] Electricity generated
by solar panels rely on a different mechanism: solar radiation is converted directly into electricity using the
photovoltaic effect.[63]
A wind farm of about a dozen three-bladed white wind turbines.
Wind power is of increasing importance in many countries.

Demand for electricity grows with great rapidity as a nation modernises and its economy develops.[64] The United
States showed a 12% increase in demand during each year of the first three decades of the twentieth century,[65] a
rate of growth that is now being experienced by emerging economies such as those of India or China.[66][67]

Environmental concerns with electricity generation, in specific the contribution of fossil fuel burning to climate
change, have led to an increased focus on generation from renewable sources. In the power sector, wind and solar
have become cost effective, speeding up an energy transition away from fossil fuels.[68]
Transmission and storage
The invention in the late nineteenth century of the transformer meant that electrical power could be transmitted
more efficiently at a higher voltage but lower current. Efficient electrical transmission meant in turn that electricity
could be generated at centralised power stations, where it benefited from economies of scale, and then be
despatched relatively long distances to where it was needed.[69][70]

Normally, demand of electricity must match the supply, as storage of electricity is difficult.[69] A certain amount of
generation must always be held in reserve to cushion an electrical grid against inevitable disturbances and losses.[71]
With increasing levels of variable renewable energy (wind and solar energy) in the grid, it has become more
challenging to match supply and demand. Storage plays an increasing role in bridging that gap. There are four types
of energy storage technologies, each in varying states of technology readiness: batteries (electrochemical storage),
chemical storage such as hydrogen, thermal or mechanical (such as pumped hydropower).[72]
Applications
a photo of a light bulb
The incandescent light bulb, an early application of electricity, operates by Joule heating: the passage of current
through resistance generating heat.

Electricity is a very convenient way to transfer energy, and it has been adapted to a huge, and growing, number of
uses.[73] The invention of a practical incandescent light bulb in the 1870s led to lighting becoming one of the first
publicly available applications of electrical power. Although electrification brought with it its own dangers, replacing
the naked flames of gas lighting greatly reduced fire hazards within homes and factories.[74] Public utilities were set
up in many cities targeting the burgeoning market for electrical lighting. In the late 20th century and in modern
times, the trend has started to flow in the direction of deregulation in the electrical power sector.[75]

The resistive Joule heating effect employed in filament light bulbs also sees more direct use in electric heating. While
this is versatile and controllable, it can be seen as wasteful, since most electrical generation has already required the
production of heat at a power station.[76] A number of countries, such as Denmark, have issued legislation
restricting or banning the use of resistive electric heating in new buildings.[77] Electricity is however still a highly
practical energy source for heating and refrigeration,[78] with air conditioning/heat pumps representing a growing
sector for electricity demand for heating and cooling, the effects of which electricity utilities are increasingly obliged
to accommodate.[79][80] Electrification is expected to play a major role in the decarbonisation of sectors that rely on
direct fossil fuel burning, such as transport (using electric vehicles) and heating (using heat pumps).[81][82]

The effects of electromagnetism are most visibly employed in the electric motor, which provides a clean and efficient
means of motive power. A stationary motor such as a winch is easily provided with a supply of power, but a motor
that moves with its application, such as an electric vehicle, is obliged to either carry along a power source such as a
battery, or to collect current from a sliding contact such as a pantograph. Electrically powered vehicles are used in
public transportation, such as electric buses and trains,[83] and an increasing number of battery-powered electric
cars in private ownership.

Electricity is used within telecommunications, and indeed the electrical telegraph, demonstrated commercially in
1837 by Cooke and Wheatstone,[84] was one of its earliest applications. With the construction of first
transcontinental, and then transatlantic, telegraph systems in the 1860s, electricity had enabled communications in
minutes across the globe. Optical fibre and satellite communication have taken a share of the market for
communications systems, but electricity can be expected to remain an essential part of the process.

Electronic devices make use of the transistor, perhaps one of the most important inventions of the twentieth
century,[85] and a fundamental building block of all modern circuitry. A modern integrated circuit may contain many
billions of miniaturised transistors in a region only a few centimetres square.[86]
Electricity and the natural world
Physiological effects
Main article: Electrical injury
A voltage applied to a human body causes an electric current through the tissues, and although the relationship is
non-linear, the greater the voltage, the greater the current.[87] The threshold for perception varies with the supply
frequency and with the path of the current, but is about 0.1 mA to 1 mA for mains-frequency electricity, though a
current as low as a microamp can be detected as an electrovibration effect under certain conditions.[88] If the
current is sufficiently high, it will cause muscle contraction, fibrillation of the heart, and tissue burns.[87] The lack of
any visible sign that a conductor is electrified makes electricity a particular hazard. The pain caused by an electric
shock can be intense, leading electricity at times to be employed as a method of torture.[89] Death caused by an
electric shock—electrocution—is still used for judicial execution in some US states, though its use had become very
rare by the end of the 20th century.[90]
Electrical phenomena in nature
Main article: Electrical phenomena
The electric eel, Electrophorus electricus

Electricity is not a human invention, and may be observed in several forms in nature, notably lightning. Many
interactions familiar at the macroscopic level, such as touch, friction or chemical bonding, are due to interactions
between electric fields on the atomic scale. The Earth's magnetic field is due to the natural dynamo of circulating
currents in the planet's core.[91] Certain crystals, such as quartz, or even sugar, generate a potential difference across
their faces when pressed.[92] This phenomenon is known as piezoelectricity, from the Greek piezein (πιέζειν),
meaning to press, and was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie. The effect is reciprocal: when a
piezoelectric material is subjected to an electric field it changes size slightly.[92]

Some organisms, such as sharks, are able to detect and respond to changes in electric fields, an ability known as
electroreception,[93] while others, termed electrogenic, are able to generate voltages themselves to serve as a
predatory or defensive weapon; these are electric fish in different orders.[3] The order Gymnotiformes, of which the
best known example is the electric eel, detect or stun their prey via high voltages generated from modified muscle
cells called electrocytes.[3][4] All animals transmit information along their cell membranes with voltage pulses called
action potentials, whose functions include communication by the nervous system between neurons and muscles.[94]
An electric shock stimulates this system, and causes muscles to contract.[95] Action potentials are also responsible
for coordinating activities in certain plants.[94]
Cultural perception

It is said that in the 1850s, British politician William Ewart Gladstone asked the scientist Michael Faraday why
electricity was valuable. Faraday answered, "One day sir, you may tax it."[96][97][98] However, according to
Snopes.com "the anecdote should be considered apocryphal because it isn't mentioned in any accounts by Faraday
or his contemporaries (letters, newspapers, or biographies) and only popped up well after Faraday's death."[99]

In the 19th and early 20th century, electricity was not part of the everyday life of many people, even in the
industrialised Western world. The popular culture of the time accordingly often depicted it as a mysterious, quasi-
magical force that can slay the living, revive the dead or otherwise bend the laws of nature.[100]: 69 This attitude
began with the 1771 experiments of Luigi Galvani in which the legs of dead frogs were shown to twitch on
application of animal electricity. "Revitalization" or resuscitation of apparently dead or drowned persons was
reported in the medical literature shortly after Galvani's work. These results were known to Mary Shelley when she
authored Frankenstein (1819), although she does not name the method of revitalization of the monster. The
revitalization of monsters with electricity later became a stock theme in horror films.

As public familiarity with electricity as the lifeblood of the Second Industrial Revolution grew, its wielders were more
often cast in a positive light,[100]: 71 such as the workers who "finger death at their gloves' end as they piece and
repiece the living wires" in Rudyard Kipling's 1907 poem Sons of Martha.[100]: 71 Electrically powered vehicles of
every sort featured large in adventure stories such as those of Jules Verne and the Tom Swift books.[100]: 71 The
masters of electricity, whether fictional or real—including scientists such as Thomas Edison, Charles Steinmetz or
Nikola Tesla—were popularly conceived of as having wizard-like powers.[100]: 71
What Is Electricity?
Electricity is a form of energy. Electricity is the flow of electrons. All matter is made up of atoms, and an atom has a
center, called a nucleus. The nucleus contains positively charged particles called protons and uncharged particles
called neutrons. The nucleus of an atom is surrounded by negatively charged particles called electrons. The negative
charge of an electron is equal to the positive charge of a proton, and the number of electrons in an atom is usually
equal to the number of protons. When the balancing force between protons and electrons is upset by an outside
force, an atom may gain or lose an electron. When electrons are "lost" from an atom, the free movement of these
electrons constitutes an electric current.

Electricity is a basic part of nature and it is one of our most widely used forms of energy. We get electricity, which is a
secondary energy source, from the conversion of other sources of energy, like coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power
and other natural sources, which are called primary sources. Many cities and towns were built alongside waterfalls (a
primary source of mechanical energy) that turned water wheels to perform work. Before electricity generation began
slightly over 100 years ago, houses were lit with kerosene lamps, food was cooled in iceboxes, and rooms were
warmed by wood-burning or coal-burning stoves. Beginning with Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite one
stormy night in Philadelphia, the principles of electricity gradually became understood. In the mid-1800s, everyone's
life changed with the invention of the electric light bulb. Prior to 1879, electricity had been used in arc lights for
outdoor lighting. The lightbulb's invention used electricity to bring indoor lighting to our homes.

How Is a Transformer Used?

To solve the problem of sending electricity over long distances, George Westinghouse developed a device called a
transformer. The transformer allowed electricity to be efficiently transmitted over long distances. This made it
possible to supply electricity to homes and businesses located far from the electric generating plant.

Despite its great importance in our daily lives, most of us rarely stop to think what life would be like without
electricity. Yet like air and water, we tend to take electricity for granted. Everyday, we use electricity to do many
functions for us -- from lighting and heating/cooling our homes, to being the power source for televisions and
computers. Electricity is a controllable and convenient form of energy used in the applications of heat, light and
power.

Today, the United States (U.S.) electric power industry is set up to ensure that an adequate supply of electricity is
available to meet all demand requirements at any given instant.

How Is Electricity Generated?

An electric generator is a device for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. The process is based on the
relationship between magnetism and electricity. When a wire or any other electrically conductive material moves
across a magnetic field, an electric current occurs in the wire. The large generators used by the electric utility
industry have a stationary conductor. A magnet attached to the end of a rotating shaft is positioned inside a
stationary conducting ring that is wrapped with a long, continuous piece of wire. When the magnet rotates, it
induces a small electric current in each section of wire as it passes. Each section of wire constitutes a small, separate
electric conductor. All the small currents of individual sections add up to one current of considerable size. This
current is what is used for electric power.

How Are Turbines Used to Generate Electricity?

An electric utility power station uses either a turbine, engine, water wheel, or other similar machine to drive an
electric generator or a device that converts mechanical or chemical energy to electricity. Steam turbines,
internalcombustion engines, gas combustion turbines, water turbines, and wind turbines are the most common
methods to generate electricity.

Most of the electricity in the United States is produced in steam turbines. A turbine converts the kinetic energy of a
moving fluid (liquid or gas) to mechanical energy. Steam turbines have a series of blades mounted on a shaft against
which steam is forced, thus rotating the shaft connected to the generator. In a fossil-fueled steam turbine, the fuel is
burned in a furnace to heat water in a boiler to produce steam.
Coal, petroleum (oil), and natural gas are burned in large furnaces to heat water to make steam that in turn pushes
on the blades of a turbine. Did you know that coal is the largest single primary source of energy used to generate
electricity in the United States? In 1998, more than half (52%) of the county's 3.62 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity
used coal as its source of energy.

Natural gas, in addition to being burned to heat water for steam, can also be burned to produce hot combustion
gases that pass directly through a turbine, spinning the blades of the turbine to generate electricity. Gas turbines are
commonly used when electricity utility usage is in high demand. In 1998, 15% of the nation's electricity was fueled by
natural gas.

Petroleum can also be used to make steam to turn a turbine. Residual fuel oil, a product refined from crude oil, is
often the petroleum product used in electric plants that use petroleum to make steam. Petroleum was used to
generate less than three percent (3%) of all electricity generated in U.S. electricity plants in 1998.

Nuclear power is a method in which steam is produced by heating water through a process called nuclear fission. In a
nuclear power plant, a reactor contains a core of nuclear fuel, primarily enriched uranium. When atoms of uranium
fuel are hit by neutrons they fission (split), releasing heat and more neutrons. Under controlled conditions, these
other neutrons can strike more uranium atoms, splitting more atoms, and so on. Thereby, continuous fission can take
place, forming a chain reaction releasing heat. The heat is used to turn water into steam, that, in turn, spins a turbine
that generates electricity. In 2015, Nuclear power is used to generate 19.47 percent of all the country's electricity.

As of 2013, hydropower accounts for 6.8 percent of U.S. electricity generation. Its a process in which flowing water is
used to spin a turbine connected to a generator. There are mainly two basic types of hydroelectric systems that
produce electricity. In the first system, flowing water accumulates in reservoirs created by the use of dams. The water
falls through a pipe called a penstock and applies pressure against the turbine blades to drive the generator to
produce electricity. In the second system, called run-of-river, the force of the river current (rather than falling water)
applies pressure to the turbine blades to produce electricity.

Other Generating Sources

Geothermal power comes from heat energy buried beneath the surface of the earth. In some areas of the country,
magma (molten matter under the earth's crust) flows close enough to the surface of the earth to heat underground
water into steam, which can be tapped for use at steam-turbine plants. As of 2013, this energy source generates less
than 1% of the electricity in the country, though an assessment by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that
nine western states can potentially produce enough electricity to supply 20 percent of the nation’s energy needs.

Solar power is derived from the energy of the sun. However, the sun's energy is not available full-time and it is widely
scattered. The processes used to produce electricity using the sun's energy have historically been more expensive
than using conventional fossil fuels. Photovoltaic conversion generates electric power directly from the light of the
sun in a photovoltaic (solar) cell. Solar-thermal electric generators use the radiant energy from the sun to produce
steam to drive turbines. In 2015, less than 1% of the nation's electricity was supplied by solar power.

Wind power is derived from the conversion of the energy contained in wind into electricity. Wind power, like the sun,
is usually an expensive source of producing electricity. In 2014, It was used for roughly 4.44 percent of the nation's
electricity. A wind turbine is similar to a typical wind mill.

Biomass (wood, municipal solid waste (garbage), and agricultural waste, such as corn cobs and wheat straw, are some
other energy sources for producing electricity. These sources replace fossil fuels in the boiler. The combustion of
wood and waste creates steam that is typically used in conventional steam-electric plants. In 2015, biomass accounts
for 1.57 percent of the electricity generated in the United States.

The electricity produced by a generator travels along cables to a transformer, which changes electricity from low
voltage to high voltage. Electricity can be moved long distances more efficiently using high voltage. Transmission lines
are used to carry the electricity to a substation. Substations have transformers that change the high voltage
electricity into lower voltage electricity. From the substation, distribution lines carry the electricity to homes, offices
and factories, which require low voltage electricity.

How Is Electricity Measured?

Electricity is measured in units of power called watts. It was named to honor James Watt, the inventor of the steam
engine. One watt is a very small amount of power. It would require nearly 750 watts to equal one horsepower. A
kilowatt represents 1,000 watts. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is equal to the energy of 1,000 watts working for one hour.
The amount of electricity a power plant generates or a customer uses over a period of time is measured in
kilowatthours (kWh). Kilowatt-hours are determined by multiplying the number of kW's required by the number of
hours of use. For example, if you use a 40-watt light bulb 5 hours a day, you have used 200 watts of power, or .2
kilowatthours of electrical energy.