akunohana learns electricity

An electron flow - a current - in a conductor can influence the electron spin in neighboring conductors, which in turn yields magnetic fields, as we saw with the solenoid. However, this relationship goes both ways. Magnetic fields can also cause electron flow: if we move a conductor through a magnetic field, the magnetic field will push the electrons in the conductor in a certain direction. Recall that we learned in previous posts that it is voltage that makes current flow. The push - or pressure, if you will - that we exert on the electrons in the conductor by moving it through a magnetic field is also voltage. However, contrary to the voltage that we observed in earlier posts, this voltage is not caused by the difference between two differently charged nodes, as with batteries. In the case, voltage is caused by a force called electromotive force . The end goal - or rather, the result - is nevertheless the same: a current occurs! Now, if we move the conductor through the magnetic field in the opposite direction, the polarity of the voltage and the direction of the current change too. This phenomenon, when a magnetic field influences a conductor so that electric potential occurs, is called induction . One prerequisite for induction is that either the magnetic field or the conductor actually moves.

IMPORTANT NOTICE I have no formal education related to electricity or any other branch within the natural sciences. I take no responsibility for the factual accuracy of the posts, comments or any other content within this community.

Magnetic fields are invisible force fields. They have direction and strength. They emanate from and return to the same point in space. But how do they emerge in the first place? Electrons not only orbit the atomic nucleus, but they also rotate around their own axis. This is called a “spin”. This rotation generates a magnetic field. No magnetic phenomena occur outside the atom.

We have come to understand - with the help of earlier posts - that voltage drives current and that this current can do useful work for us. The amount of work that voltage and current can do is expressed as “power”. The unit of power is watt/W, but when doing calculations “P” is used, taken from the first letter in the word “power”. If on an electric appliance you find the markings “230V, 40W”, it is to be understood that the appliance does useful work for us at the power of 40 watts if it is supplied the voltage 230 volts. If one does not supply the appliance with the prescribed voltage, it will not do useful work for us at the desired power.

In the previous post, we were talking about creating light by leveraging the properties of electricity: voltage, current and resistance. Voltage occurs when two opposite charges consitute a potential difference in a closed circuit. This voltage in turn causes a current - a flow of electrons - in our circuit, flowing from the negative node of the power source to the positive node of the power source. When the current passes through the load of our circuit - a filament made of tungsten in our case with the lightbulb - it encounters high resistance. As current is forced through this high resistance, heat is generated. The increased heat increases the resistivity of the tungsten filament, and vice versa, which at a certain point starts emitting light.

We can harness electric charges and their potentials by artificially creating networks of paths for them in which they can equalize. We call these networks “circuits” and we can use them to create light, among other things.

The core, the nucleus, of an atom consists of positively charged protons and of neutrons that do not have any charge. The nucleus in its entirety is considered to be positively charged. Surrounding the atomic nucleus is a cloud of electrons. Electrons are negatively charged. If the number of electrons are the same as the number of protons, then the atom is electrically neutral. There is electric equilibrium.