Electricity

Kamala’s Questions

One day Kamala and her father went to the exhibition. It was late evening and the exhibition had all the colourful lights, so many sweets, a variety of games, there was cotton candy too.

Kamala was very excited as soon as she saw all the colourful lights. First, Kamala and her father went around all of the exhibition, they did not do anything and they were just seeing everything. Kamala was memorizing every toy and sweet shop where she wanted to buy all the sweets, ice-creams and her favourite remote-control car.

Her father told her that if she buys something in the beginning, she might change her mind after seeing other toys or ride so they went around the first time and Kamala had all the time in the world to decide what to ask. She wanted the red remote-control car whose door open when a bottom is pressed and there is a small monkey inside the car. She wanted to get inside the giant wheel. Her father said that she will be scared but Kamala said she is a strong girl.

Both father and daughter ate some ice-cream and some fast food which was very delicious. All the time she was eating, Kamala was staring at the lights that she was seeing everywhere. Her father asked Kamala what was she thinking, to which Kamala asked, “how do all these lights glow?”. To which her father said they all glow because of electricity. She did not understand what that was but did not ask further. Then both father and daughter got into the giant wheel.

Kamala was very excited and she was laughing all along, she enjoyed it very much. After getting off the giant wheel she asked her father how that giant wheel worked. To which said, again, electricity. Then before going home both of them drank some juice and Kamala bought the remote-control car with the monkey inside.

While going home she asked her father, “how does this remote-control car work? The monkey inside drives it?” to which her father laughed and said that too was because of electricity and not the monkey.

Electricity

Electricity is the phenomenon when electrons flow from one place to another because of the potential difference between the starting and the final place. When we switch on the light bulb or any machine, we turn ON a switch. The switch connects two places with different potentials and hence when they are connected current flows and the machines, bulb, tube light, fan, etc starts working.

Difference between Electricity and Current

Current is just the flow of electrons from one place to another and electricity has many other factors like Generating and Distributing Electricity.

Even though electricity has different factors in it, both Current and Electricity have movement of electrons and they are some in some aspect.

Generation Of Electricity

The electricity we use at our home to run everything like TV, mobile phones, computers, fans, light bulbs, water pumps, laptops, etc all the electricity is generated very very far from our homes. Electricity is generated at a generation plant. And at that place, so much electricity is produced that it is sufficient for crores of people living in their houses.

Next time you turn any machine/electrical appliance ON, remember that the current that is flowing through that machines/appliance was generated thousands of kilometres away from where you are.

Now that the electricity is generated. How do you think it flows from a very far away place to your house?

Distribution Of Electricity

After electricity is generated it has to be sent to all the places, including our houses, where it is required. Because electricity is generated in so large quantities that it cannot be stored at a place. And that electricity is sent everywhere by the help of long wires and many devices which help in the distribution of electricity safely.

Types Of Electricity

There are three types of electricity, Static, Dynamic and Stored Electricity.

Static Electricity

When there is a very large potential difference between two objects/places then, at some point electrons flow from higher potential to lower potential and that is called static electricity.

A potential difference arises when there is an imbalance in the number of electrons at one place and the same number of electrons being absent at another place. The place with high electrons is said to have higher potential and when a low potential object comes near to high potential object the electrons jump from high to low potential. And that kind of electricity which arose due to simple imbalance of electrons is called static electricity.

Lightning: we sometimes see lightning in the sky, huge beams of white colour fall from between the clouds onto the ground. That is because one cloud has more electrons than other and when they come close to each other the electrons flow from one cloud to other cloud or they fall on earth, there are so many electrons that fall that the flow of electrons, the path, glows up which leads to the bright white light beams we see.

Dynamic Electricity

The electricity we get at our homes is dynamic electricity because unlike the clouds with a different number of electrons, we, humans at the generating plant make the electrons to flow which gives us current and we distribute this electricity where ever it is required. Dynamic electricity involves the movement of electrons, unlike static electricity where the electricity is due to the imbalance of electrons.

Stored Electricity

Another form of electricity is Stored Electricity. The batteries we see in our daily life like the inside of wall clocks and inside remote-control cars produce a current which flows throughout the whole device which makes the device to work. The electricity is stored inside the battery in the form of chemical energy.

A battery is a device which converts chemical energy into electrical energy.

QUIZ:

1. Electricity is when _______________

• Enzymes are moving
• Electrons are moving
• Protons are moving
• Neutrons are moving

2) Static electricity is called static because it does not involve any movement (            )

• True
• False

3) What type of energy do we have in our homes?*