Electricity

Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and
motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. In early days, electricity
was considered as being unrelated to magnetism. Later on, many experimental
results and the development of Maxwell's equations indicated that both
electricity and magnetism are from a single phenomenon: electromagnetism.
Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static
electricity, electric heating, electric discharges and many others.

The presence of an electric charge, which can be either positive or negative,

produces an electric field. The movement of electric charges is an electric
current and produces a magnetic field. Lightning is one of the most dramatic
effects of electricity.
When a charge is placed in a location with a non-zero electric field, a force will
act on it. The magnitude of this force is given by Coulomb's law. Thus, if that
charge were to move, the electric field would be doing work on the electric charge. Thus we can speak of electric potential at a
certain point in space, which is equal to the work done by an external agent in carrying a unit of positive charge from an
arbitrarily chosen reference point to that point without any acceleration and is typically measured in volts.

Electricity is at the heart of many modern technologies, being used for:

electric power where electric current is used to energise equipment;

electronics which deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical components such as vacuum tubes,
transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies.
Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though progress in theoretical understanding remained slow until the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even then, practical applications for electricity were few, and it would not be until the late
nineteenth century that electrical engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical
technology at this time transformed industry and society, becoming a driving force for the Second Industrial Revolution.
Electricity's extraordinary versatility means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include transport,
heating, lighting, communications, and computation. Electrical power is now the backbone of modern industrial society.[1]

Contents
History
Concepts
Electric charge
Electric current
Electric field
Electric potential
Electromagnets
Electrochemistry
Electric circuits
Electric power
Electronics
Electromagnetic wave
 Production and uses
Generation and transmission
Applications
Electricity and the natural world
Physiological effects
Electrical phenomena in nature
Cultural perception
See also
Notes
References
External links

History
Long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from
electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE referred to these fish as the
"Thunderer of the Nile", and 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
suffering from ailments such as gout or headache were directed to touch electric fish in the
hope that the powerful jolt might cure them.[4] Possibly the earliest and nearest approach
to the discovery of the identity of lightning, and electricity from any other source, is to be
attributed to the Arabs, who before the 15th century had the Arabic word for lightning
ra‘ad (‫ )رﻋﺪ‬applied to the electric ray.[5] Thales, the earliest known
researcher into electricity
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.[6][7][8][9] 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.[10]

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.[6] He coined the New 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.[11] 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.[12]

Further work was conducted in the 17th and early 18th centuries by Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray and C. F. du
Fay.[13] 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.[14] A succession of sparks jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed that lightning was indeed
electrical in nature.[15] He also explained the apparently paradoxical behavior[16] 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.[13]
 In 1791, Luigi Galvani published his discovery of
bioelectromagnetics, demonstrating that electricity
was the medium by which neurons passed signals
to the muscles.[17][18][13] 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.[17][18] 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
Benjamin Franklin Michael Faraday's
the electric motor in 1821, and Georg Ohm
conducted extensive discoveries formed the
research on electricity in the mathematically analysed the electrical circuit in foundation of electric motor
18th century, as 1827.[18] Electricity and magnetism (and light) technology
documented by Joseph were definitively linked by James Clerk Maxwell,
Priestley (1767) History and in particular in his "On Physical Lines of Force" in
Present Status of Electricity, 1861 and 1862.[19]
with whom Franklin carried
on extended While the early 19th century had seen rapid progress in electrical science, the late 19th
correspondence.
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.

In 1887, Heinrich Hertz[20]:843–44[21] 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".[22]
The photoelectric effect is also employed in photocells such as can be found in solar panels and this is frequently used to make
electricity commercially.

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.[23] 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.[24][25]

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,[26] followed by
the bipolar junction transistor in 1948.[27] These early transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture
on a mass-production basis.[28] They were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect
transistor, or MOS transistor), invented by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959.[29][30][31] It was the first
truly compact transistor that could be miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses,[28] leading to the silicon
revolution.[32] Solid-state devices started becoming prevalent from the 1960s, with the transition from vacuum tubes to
semiconductor diodes, transistors, integrated circuit (IC) chips, MOSFETs, and light-emitting diode (LED) technology.
The most common electronic device is the MOSFET,[30][33] which has become the most widely manufactured device in
history.[34] Common solid-state MOS devices include microprocessor chips[35] and semiconductor memory.[36][37] A special
type of semiconductor memory is flash memory, which is used in USB flash drives and mobile devices, as well as solid-state
drive (SSD) technology to replace mechanically rotating magnetic disc hard disk drive (HDD) technology.

Concepts

Electric charge
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.[20]:457 A lightweight
ball suspended from a string 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.[20]
Charge on a gold-leaf
The force acts on the charged particles themselves, hence charge has a tendency to spread
electroscope causes the
itself as evenly as possible over a conducting surface. The magnitude of the leaves to visibly repel each
electromagnetic force, whether attractive or repulsive, is given by Coulomb's law, which other
relates the force to the product of the charges and has an inverse-square relation to the
distance between them.[38][39]:35 The electromagnetic force is very strong, second only in
strength to the strong interaction,[40] but unlike that force it operates over all distances.[41] 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.[42]

Study has shown that the origin of charge is from certain types of subatomic particles which have the property of electric charge.
Electric charge gives rise to and interacts with the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. The most
familiar carriers of electrical charge are the electron and proton. 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.[43] Within the system, charge may be transferred between bodies, either by direct contact, or by passing along a
conducting material, such as a wire.[39]: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.

The charge on electrons and protons is opposite in sign, hence an amount of charge may be expressed as being either negative or
positive. By convention, the charge carried by electrons is deemed negative, and that by protons positive, a custom that originated
with the work of Benjamin Franklin.[44] The amount of charge is usually given the symbol Q and expressed in coulombs;[45]
each electron carries the same charge of approximately −1.6022×10−19 coulomb. The proton has a charge that is equal and
opposite, and thus +1.6022×10−19 coulomb. Charge is possessed not just by matter, but also by antimatter, each antiparticle
bearing an equal and opposite charge to its corresponding particle.[46]

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.[39]:2–5
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.[47]

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.[48] 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.

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,[39]:17 the electric field that drives them itself propagates
at close to the speed of light, enabling electrical signals to pass rapidly along
wires.[49]
An electric arc provides an energetic
demonstration of electric current 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.[39]: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.[50] 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.[51]

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.[52]: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.[52]: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.[52]:223–25 These properties however can
become important when circuitry is subjected to transients, such as when first energised.

Electric field
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.[41] 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.[42]

An electric field generally varies in space,[53] 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.[20]: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, so it follows that an electric field is also a vector, having both magnitude
and direction. Specifically, it is a vector field.[20]: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 Field lines emanating from a positive
charge above a plane conductor
point is the same as that of the field. This concept was introduced by Faraday,[54]
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.[54] 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.[20]:479

A hollow conducting body carries all its charge on its outer surface. The field is therefore zero at all places inside the body.[39]: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.[55] 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.[56]

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 stroke to develop there, rather than to the building it serves to protect[57]:155

Electric potential
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.[20]: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.[20]: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, it is useful to define a common reference point to which

potentials may be expressed and compared. 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.[58]

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
A pair of AA cells. The + sign
fall through a difference in heights caused by a gravitational field, so a charge indicates the polarity of the potential
will 'fall' across the voltage caused by an electric field.[59] As relief maps show difference between the battery
contour lines marking points of equal height, a set of lines marking points of terminals.
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, otherwise this would produce a force that will move the charge
carriers to even the potential of 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.[39]:60

Electromagnets
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.[50] Ørsted's slightly obscure 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.[60]

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
Magnetic field circles around a force on a current. The phenomenon was further investigated by Ampère, who
current 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.[61]
The interaction is mediated by the magnetic field each current produces and forms the basis for the international definition of the
ampere.[61]
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.[62]

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
The electric motor exploits an
magnetic flux through the loop. Exploitation of this discovery enabled him to
important effect of electromagnetism:
invent the first electrical generator in 1831, in which he converted the a current through a magnetic field
mechanical energy of a rotating copper disc to electrical energy.[62] Faraday's experiences a force at right angles to
disc was inefficient and of no use as a practical generator, but it showed the both the field and current
possibility of generating electric power using magnetism, a possibility that
would be taken up by those that followed on from his work.

Electrochemistry
The ability of chemical reactions to produce electricity, and conversely the
ability of electricity to drive chemical reactions has a wide array of uses.

Electrochemistry has always been an important part of electricity. From the

initial invention of the Voltaic pile, electrochemical cells have evolved into the
many different types of batteries, electroplating and electrolysis cells.
Aluminium is produced in vast quantities this way, and many portable devices
are electrically powered using rechargeable cells.

Electric circuits
An electric circuit is an interconnection of electric components such that electric Italian physicist Alessandro Volta
charge is made to flow along a closed path (a circuit), usually to perform some showing his "battery" to French
useful task. emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in the
early 19th century.
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.[63]: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.[63]: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
A basic electric circuit. The voltage
fills, eventually falling to zero. A capacitor will therefore not permit a steady source V on the left drives a current I
state current, but instead blocks it.[63]:216–20 around the circuit, delivering
electrical energy into the resistor R.
The inductor is a conductor, usually a coil of wire, that stores energy in a From the resistor, the current returns
magnetic field in response to the current through it. When the current changes, to the source, completing the circuit.
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.[63]:226–29

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

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

Electricity generation is often done with electric generators, but can also be supplied by chemical sources such as electric
batteries or by other means from a wide variety of sources of energy. 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.[64]

Electronics
Electronics deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical
components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes, optoelectronics, sensors
and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies. The
nonlinear behaviour of active components and their ability to control electron
flows makes amplification of weak signals possible and electronics is widely
used in information processing, telecommunications, and signal processing. The
ability of electronic devices to act as switches makes digital information
processing possible. Interconnection technologies such as circuit boards,
electronics packaging technology, and other varied forms of communication
Surface mount electronic
infrastructure complete circuit functionality and transform the mixed
components
components into a regular working system.

Today, most electronic devices use semiconductor components to perform

electron control. The study of semiconductor devices and related technology is considered a branch of solid state physics,
whereas the design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems come under electronics engineering.

Electromagnetic wave
Faraday's and Ampère's work showed that a time-varying magnetic field acted as a source of an electric field, and a time-varying
electric field was a source of a magnetic field. Thus, when either field is changing in time, then a field of the other is necessarily
induced.[20]:696–700 Such a phenomenon has the properties of a wave, and is naturally referred to as 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 such a wave would necessarily travel at the speed of light, and thus light itself was a form of
electromagnetic radiation. Maxwell's Laws, which unify light, fields, and charge are one of the great milestones of theoretical
physics.[20]:696–700

Thus, 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.

Production and uses

Generation and transmission

In the 6th century BC, the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus experimented with amber rods and these experiments were the
first studies into the production of electrical energy. While this method, now known as the triboelectric effect, can lift light objects
and generate sparks, it is extremely inefficient.[65] 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 electrical energy.[65] The battery is a versatile and very common
power source which is ideally suited to many applications, but its energy storage is finite, and once discharged it must be
disposed of or recharged. For large electrical demands electrical energy must be generated and transmitted continuously over
conductive transmission lines.

Electrical power is usually generated by electro-mechanical generators driven by steam produced from fossil fuel combustion, or
the heat released from nuclear reactions; or from other sources such as kinetic energy extracted from wind or flowing water. The
modern steam turbine invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884 today generates about 80 percent of the electric power in the world
using a variety of heat sources. 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.[66] 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.[67][68]

Early 20th-century alternator made in Budapest,

Hungary, in the power generating hall of a
hydroelectric station (photograph by Prokudin-
Gorsky, 1905–1915).

Wind power is of increasing

Since electrical energy cannot easily be stored in quantities large enough to meet
importance in many countries
demands on a national scale, at all times exactly as much must be produced as is
required.[67] This requires electricity utilities to make careful predictions of their
electrical loads, and maintain constant co-ordination with their power stations. A certain amount of generation must always be
held in reserve to cushion an electrical grid against inevitable disturbances and losses.

Demand for electricity grows with great rapidity as a nation modernises and its economy develops. The United States showed a
12% increase in demand during each year of the first three decades of the twentieth century,[69] a rate of growth that is now being
experienced by emerging economies such as those of India or China.[70][71] Historically, the growth rate for electricity demand
has outstripped that for other forms of energy.[72]:16

Environmental concerns with electricity generation have led to an increased focus on generation from renewable sources, in
particular from wind and solar. While debate can be expected to continue over the environmental impact of different means of
electricity production, its final form is relatively clean.[72]:89

Applications
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]
Electricity is used within telecommunications, and indeed the electrical telegraph,
demonstrated commercially in 1837 by Cooke and Wheatstone, was one of its earliest
applications. With the construction of first intercontinental, 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.

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,[80]
and an increasing number of battery-powered electric cars in private ownership.
The light bulb, an early
application of electricity,
Electronic devices make use of the transistor, perhaps one of the most important
operates by Joule heating:
inventions of the twentieth century,[81] and a fundamental building block of all modern
the passage of current
circuitry. A modern integrated circuit may contain several billion miniaturised transistors through resistance
in a region only a few centimetres square.[82] generating heat

Electricity and the natural world

Physiological effects
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.[83] 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.[84] If the current is sufficiently high, it will cause muscle contraction,
fibrillation of the heart, and tissue burns.[83] 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. Death caused by an electric shock is referred to as electrocution. Electrocution is still the means of judicial execution in
some jurisdictions, though its use has become rarer in recent times.[85]

Electrical phenomena in nature

Electricity is not a human invention, and may be observed in several forms in
nature, a prominent manifestation of which is 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 thought to arise from a natural dynamo of circulating currents
in the planet's core.[86] Certain crystals, such as quartz, or even sugar, generate a
potential difference across their faces when subjected to external pressure.[87]
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 The electric eel, Electrophorus
effect is reciprocal, and when a piezoelectric material is subjected to an electric electricus
field, a small change in physical dimensions takes place.[87]
§Bioelectrogenesis in microbial life is a prominent phenomenon in soils and sediment ecology resulting from anaerobic
respiration. The microbial fuel cell mimics this ubiquitous natural phenomenon.

Some organisms, such as sharks, are able to detect and respond to changes in electric fields, an ability known as
electroreception,[88] while others, termed electrogenic, are able to generate voltages themselves to serve as a predatory or
defensive weapon.[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.[89] An electric shock stimulates this system, and causes muscles to contract.[90] Action potentials are also
responsible for coordinating activities in certain plants.[89]

Cultural perception
In 1850, William Gladstone asked the scientist Michael Faraday why electricity was valuable. Faraday answered, “One day sir,
you may tax it.”[91]

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.[92] 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 the public familiarity with electricity as the lifeblood of the Second Industrial Revolution grew, its wielders were more often
cast in a positive light,[93] 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.[93] Electrically powered vehicles of every sort featured large in adventure stories
such as those of Jules Verne and the Tom Swift books.[93] 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.[93]

With electricity ceasing to be a novelty and becoming a necessity of everyday life in the later half of the 20th century, it required
particular attention by popular culture only when it stops flowing,[93] an event that usually signals disaster.[93] The people who
keep it flowing, such as the nameless hero of Jimmy Webb’s song "Wichita Lineman" (1968),[93] are still often cast as heroic,
wizard-like figures.[93]

See also
Ampère's circuital law, connects the direction of an electric current and its associated magnetic currents.
Electric potential energy, the potential energy of a system of charges
Electricity market, the sale of electrical energy
Hydraulic analogy, an analogy between the flow of water and electric current

Notes
1. Jones, D.A. (1991), "Electrical engineering: the backbone of society", Proceedings of the IEE: Science,
Measurement and Technology, 138 (1): 1–10, doi:10.1049/ip-a-3.1991.0001 (https://doi.org/10.1049%2Fip-a-3.1
991.0001)
 2. Moller, Peter; Kramer, Bernd (December 1991), "Review: Electric Fish", BioScience, American Institute of
Biological Sciences, 41 (11): 794–96 [794], doi:10.2307/1311732 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1311732),
JSTOR 1311732 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1311732)
3. Bullock, Theodore H. (2005), Electroreception, Springer, pp. 5–7, ISBN 0-387-23192-7
4. Morris, Simon C. (2003), Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe (https://archive.org/details/lifess
olutionine01conw/page/182), Cambridge University Press, pp. 182–85 (https://archive.org/details/lifessolutionine
01conw/page/182), ISBN 0-521-82704-3
5. The Encyclopedia Americana; a library of universal knowledge (1918), New York: Encyclopedia Americana Corp
6. Stewart, Joseph (2001), Intermediate Electromagnetic Theory, World Scientific, p. 50, ISBN 981-02-4471-1
7. Simpson, Brian (2003), Electrical Stimulation and the Relief of Pain, Elsevier Health Sciences, pp. 6–7, ISBN 0-
444-51258-6
8. Diogenes Laertius. R.D. Hicks (ed.). "Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 1 Chapter 1 [24]" (http://data.perseus.
org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0004.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1). Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University.
Retrieved 5 February 2017. "Aristotle and Hippias affirm that, arguing from the magnet and from amber, he
attributed a soul or life even to inanimate objects."
9. Aristotle. Daniel C. Stevenson (ed.). "De Animus (On the Soul) Book 1 Part 2 (B4 verso)" (http://classics.mit.edu/
Aristotle/soul.1.i.html#244). The Internet Classics Archive. Translated by J.A. Smith. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
"Thales, too, to judge from what is recorded about him, seems to have held soul to be a motive force, since he
said that the magnet has a soul in it because it moves the iron."
10. Frood, Arran (27 February 2003), Riddle of 'Baghdad's batteries' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2804257.st
m), BBC, retrieved 2008-02-16
11. Baigrie, Brian (2007), Electricity and Magnetism: A Historical Perspective, Greenwood Press, pp. 7–8, ISBN 0-
313-33358-0
12. Chalmers, Gordon (1937), "The Lodestone and the Understanding of Matter in Seventeenth Century England",
Philosophy of Science, 4 (1): 75–95, doi:10.1086/286445 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F286445)
13. Guarnieri, M. (2014). "Electricity in the age of Enlightenment". IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine. 8 (3): 60–
63. doi:10.1109/MIE.2014.2335431 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2FMIE.2014.2335431).
14. Srodes, James (2002), Franklin: The Essential Founding Father (https://archive.org/details/franklinessentia0000s
rod/page/92), Regnery Publishing, pp. 92–94 (https://archive.org/details/franklinessentia0000srod/page/92),
ISBN 0-89526-163-4 It is uncertain if Franklin personally carried out this experiment, but it is popularly attributed
to him.
15. Uman, Martin (1987), All About Lightning (https://archive.org/details/allaboutlightnin0000uman) (PDF), Dover
Publications, ISBN 0-486-25237-X
16. Riskin, Jessica (1998), Poor Richard’s Leyden Jar: Electricity and economy in Franklinist France (http://www.stan
ford.edu/dept/HPS/poorrichard.pdf) (PDF), p. 327
17. Guarnieri, M. (2014). "The Big Jump from the Legs of a Frog". IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine. 8 (4): 59–
61, 69. doi:10.1109/MIE.2014.2361237 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2FMIE.2014.2361237).
18. Kirby, Richard S. (1990), Engineering in History, Courier Dover Publications, pp. 331–33, ISBN 0-486-26412-2
19. Berkson, William (1974) Fields of force: the development of a world view from Faraday to Einstein (https://books.
google.com/books?id=hMc9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA148&dq=maxwell+on+physical+lines+of+force#v=onepage&q=ma
xwell%20on%20physical%20lines%20of%20force&f=false) p.148. Routledge, 1974
20. Sears, Francis; et al. (1982), University Physics, Sixth Edition, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-07199-1
21. Hertz, Heinrich (1887). "Ueber den Einfluss des ultravioletten Lichtes auf die electrische Entladung" (https://zeno
do.org/record/1423827/files/article.pdf) (PDF). Annalen der Physik. 267 (8): S. 983–1000.
Bibcode:1887AnP...267..983H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1887AnP...267..983H).
doi:10.1002/andp.18872670827 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fandp.18872670827).
22. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921" (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/index.html). Nobel
Foundation. Retrieved 2013-03-16.
23. "Solid state" (http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/solid+state), The Free Dictionary
24. John Sydney Blakemore, Solid state physics, pp. 1–3, Cambridge University Press, 1985 ISBN 0-521-31391-0.
25. Richard C. Jaeger, Travis N. Blalock, Microelectronic circuit design, pp. 46–47, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003
ISBN 0-07-250503-6.
26. "1947: Invention of the Point-Contact Transistor" (https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/invention-of-the-
point-contact-transistor/). Computer History Museum. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
27. "1948: Conception of the Junction Transistor" (https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/conception-of-the-ju
nction-transistor/). The Silicon Engine. Computer History Museum. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
28. Moskowitz, Sanford L. (2016). Advanced Materials Innovation: Managing Global Technology in the 21st century
(https://books.google.com/books?id=2STRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA168). John Wiley & Sons. p. 168.
ISBN 9780470508923.
29. "1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated" (https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconeng
ine/metal-oxide-semiconductor-mos-transistor-demonstrated/). The Silicon Engine. Computer History Museum.
30. "Who Invented the Transistor?" (https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/who-invented-the-transistor/). Computer
History Museum. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
31. "Triumph of the MOS Transistor" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6fBEjf9WPw). YouTube. Computer History
Museum. 6 August 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
32. Feldman, Leonard C. (2001). "Introduction" (https://books.google.com/books?id=sV4y2-mWGNIC&pg=PA1).
Fundamental Aspects of Silicon Oxidation. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 1–11. ISBN 9783540416821.
33. Golio, Mike; Golio, Janet (2018). RF and Microwave Passive and Active Technologies (https://books.google.com/
books?id=MCj9jxSVQKIC&pg=SA18-PA2). CRC Press. pp. 18–2. ISBN 9781420006728.
34. "13 Sextillion & Counting: The Long & Winding Road to the Most Frequently Manufactured Human Artifact in
History" (https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/13-sextillion-counting-the-long-winding-road-to-the-most-frequen
tly-manufactured-human-artifact-in-history/). Computer History Museum. April 2, 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
35. Shirriff, Ken (30 August 2016). "The Surprising Story of the First Microprocessors" (https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech
-history/silicon-revolution/the-surprising-story-of-the-first-microprocessors). IEEE Spectrum. Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
36. "The MOS Memory Market" (http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/ice/cd/MEMORY97/SEC01.PDF) (PDF). Integrated
Circuit Engineering Corporation. Smithsonian Institution. 1997. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
37. "MOS Memory Market Trends" (http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/ice/cd/STATUS98/SEC07.PDF) (PDF). Integrated
Circuit Engineering Corporation. Smithsonian Institution. 1998. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
38. "The repulsive force between two small spheres charged with the same type of electricity is inversely proportional
to the square of the distance between the centres of the two spheres." Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, Histoire de
l'Academie Royal des Sciences, Paris 1785.
39. Duffin, W.J. (1980), Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd edition (https://archive.org/details/electricitymagn00duff),
McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-084111-X
40. National Research Council (1998), Physics Through the 1990s, National Academies Press, pp. 215–16, ISBN 0-
309-03576-7
41. Umashankar, Korada (1989), Introduction to Engineering Electromagnetic Fields, World Scientific, pp. 77–79,
ISBN 9971-5-0921-0
42. Hawking, Stephen (1988), A Brief History of Time, Bantam Press, p. 77, ISBN 0-553-17521-1
43. Trefil, James (2003), The Nature of Science: An A–Z Guide to the Laws and Principles Governing Our Universe
(https://archive.org/details/natureofsciencea00tref/page/74), Houghton Mifflin Books, p. 74 (https://archive.org/det
ails/natureofsciencea00tref/page/74), ISBN 0-618-31938-7
44. Shectman, Jonathan (2003), Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the 18th
Century, Greenwood Press, pp. 87–91, ISBN 0-313-32015-2
45. Sewell, Tyson (1902), The Elements of Electrical Engineering, Lockwood, p. 18. The Q originally stood for
'quantity of electricity', the term 'electricity' now more commonly expressed as 'charge'.
46. Close, Frank (2007), The New Cosmic Onion: Quarks and the Nature of the Universe, CRC Press, p. 51, ISBN 1-
58488-798-2
47. Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity – Jim Al-Khalili BBC Horizon
48. Ward, Robert (1960), Introduction to Electrical Engineering, Prentice-Hall, p. 18
49. Solymar, L. (1984), Lectures on electromagnetic theory, Oxford University Press, p. 140, ISBN 0-19-856169-5
50. Berkson, William (1974), Fields of Force: The Development of a World View from Faraday to Einstein, Routledge,
p. 370, ISBN 0-7100-7626-6 Accounts differ as to whether this was before, during, or after a lecture.
51. "Lab Note #105 EMI Reduction – Unsuppressed vs. Suppressed" (http://www.arcsuppressiontechnologies.com/ar
c-suppression-facts/lab-app-notes/). Arc Suppression Technologies. April 2011. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
52. Bird, John (2007), Electrical and Electronic Principles and Technology, 3rd edition, Newnes,
ISBN 9781417505432
53. Almost all electric fields vary in space. An exception is the electric field surrounding a planar conductor of infinite
extent, the field of which is uniform.
54. Morely & Hughes, Principles of Electricity, Fifth edition, p. 73, ISBN 0-582-42629-4
55. Naidu, M.S.; Kamataru, V. (1982), High Voltage Engineering, Tata McGraw-Hill, p. 2, ISBN 0-07-451786-4
56. Naidu, M.S.; Kamataru, V. (1982), High Voltage Engineering, Tata McGraw-Hill, pp. 201–02, ISBN 0-07-451786-4
57. Paul J. Nahin (9 October 2002). Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the
Victorian Age. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-6909-9.
58. Serway, Raymond A. (2006), Serway's College Physics, Thomson Brooks, p. 500, ISBN 0-534-99724-4
59. Saeli, Sue; MacIsaac, Dan (2007), "Using Gravitational Analogies To Introduce Elementary Electrical Field
Theory Concepts" (http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/PHY690/Saeli2004GEModels/older/ElectricAnalogies1
Nov.doc), The Physics Teacher, 45 (2): 104, Bibcode:2007PhTea..45..104S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/20
07PhTea..45..104S), doi:10.1119/1.2432088 (https://doi.org/10.1119%2F1.2432088), retrieved 2007-12-09
60. Thompson, Silvanus P. (2004), Michael Faraday: His Life and Work, Elibron Classics, p. 79, ISBN 1-4212-7387-X
61. Morely & Hughes, Principles of Electricity, Fifth edition, pp. 92–93
62. Institution of Engineering and Technology, Michael Faraday: Biography (https://web.archive.org/web/2007070306
3432/http://www.iee.org/TheIEE/Research/Archives/Histories%26Biographies/Faraday.cfm), archived from the
original (http://www.iee.org/TheIEE/Research/Archives/Histories&Biographies/Faraday.cfm) on 2007-07-03,
retrieved 2007-12-09
63. Alexander, Charles; Sadiku, Matthew (2006), Fundamentals of Electric Circuits (3, revised ed.), McGraw-Hill,
ISBN 9780073301150
64. Environmental Physics By Clare Smith 2001
65. Dell, Ronald; Rand, David (2001), "Understanding Batteries", Unknown, Royal Society of Chemistry, 86: 2–4,
Bibcode:1985STIN...8619754M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1985STIN...8619754M), ISBN 0-85404-605-4
66. McLaren, Peter G. (1984), Elementary Electric Power and Machines, Ellis Horwood, pp. 182–83, ISBN 0-85312-
269-5
67. Patterson, Walter C. (1999), Transforming Electricity: The Coming Generation of Change, Earthscan, pp. 44–48,
ISBN 1-85383-341-X
68. Edison Electric Institute, History of the Electric Power Industry (https://web.archive.org/web/20071113132557/htt
p://www.eei.org/industry_issues/industry_overview_and_statistics/history), archived from the original (http://www.
eei.org/industry_issues/industry_overview_and_statistics/history) on November 13, 2007, retrieved 2007-12-08
69. Edison Electric Institute, History of the U.S. Electric Power Industry, 1882–1991 (http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/ele
ctricity/chg_stru_update/appa.html), retrieved 2007-12-08
70. Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, An Energy Summary of India (https://web.archive.org/web/2007120508
0916/http://www.cslforum.org/india.htm), archived from the original (http://www.cslforum.org/india.htm) on 2007-
12-05, retrieved 2007-12-08
71. IndexMundi, China Electricity – consumption (http://www.indexmundi.com/china/electricity_consumption.html),
retrieved 2007-12-08
72. National Research Council (1986), Electricity in Economic Growth, National Academies Press, ISBN 0-309-
03677-1
73. Wald, Matthew (21 March 1990), "Growing Use of Electricity Raises Questions on Supply" (https://query.nytimes.
com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6DD1F3AF932A15750C0A966958260), New York Times, retrieved
2007-12-09
74. d'Alroy Jones, Peter, The Consumer Society: A History of American Capitalism, Penguin Books, p. 211
75. "The Bumpy Road to Energy Deregulation" (https://www.en-powered.com/blog/the-bumpy-road-to-energy-deregu
lation). EnPowered. 2016-03-28.
76. ReVelle, Charles and Penelope (1992), The Global Environment: Securing a Sustainable Future, Jones &
Bartlett, p. 298, ISBN 0-86720-321-8
77. Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy, "F.2 The Heat Supply Act" (https://web.archive.org/web/2008010801
1443/http://glwww.mst.dk/udgiv/Publications/1997/87-7810-983-3/html/annexf.htm), Denmark's Second National
Communication on Climate Change, archived from the original (http://glwww.mst.dk/udgiv/Publications/1997/87-7
810-983-3/html/annexf.htm) on January 8, 2008, retrieved 2007-12-09
78. Brown, Charles E. (2002), Power resources, Springer, ISBN 3-540-42634-5
79. Hojjati, B.; Battles, S., The Growth in Electricity Demand in U.S. Households, 1981–2001: Implications for Carbon
Emissions (https://web.archive.org/web/20080216100857/http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/efficiency/2005_USAEE.
pdf) (PDF), archived from the original (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/efficiency/2005_USAEE.pdf) (PDF) on 2008-
02-16, retrieved 2007-12-09
80. "Public Transportation" (http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/public-transit/),
Alternative Energy News, 2010-03-10
81. Herrick, Dennis F. (2003), Media Management in the Age of Giants: Business Dynamics of Journalism, Blackwell
Publishing, ISBN 0-8138-1699-8
82. Das, Saswato R. (2007-12-15), "The tiny, mighty transistor" (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-das15de
c15,0,4782957.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail), Los Angeles Times
83. Tleis, Nasser (2008), Power System Modelling and Fault Analysis, Elsevier, pp. 552–54, ISBN 978-0-7506-8074-
5
84. Grimnes, Sverre (2000), Bioimpedance and Bioelectricity Basic, Academic Press, pp. 301–09, ISBN 0-12-
303260-1
85. Lipschultz, J.H.; Hilt, M.L.J.H. (2002), Crime and Local Television News, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p. 95,
ISBN 0-8058-3620-9
86. Encrenaz, Thérèse (2004), The Solar System, Springer, p. 217, ISBN 3-540-00241-3
87. Lima-de-Faria, José; Buerger, Martin J. (1990), "Historical Atlas of Crystallography", Zeitschrift für
Kristallographie, Springer, 209 (12): 67, Bibcode:1994ZK....209.1008P (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994Z
K....209.1008P), doi:10.1524/zkri.1994.209.12.1008a (https://doi.org/10.1524%2Fzkri.1994.209.12.1008a),
ISBN 0-7923-0649-X
88. Ivancevic, Vladimir & Tijana (2005), Natural Biodynamics, World Scientific, p. 602, ISBN 981-256-534-5
89. Kandel, E.; Schwartz, J.; Jessell, T. (2000), Principles of Neural Science (https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780838
577011/page/27), McGraw-Hill Professional, pp. 27–28 (https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780838577011/page/2
7), ISBN 0-8385-7701-6
90. Davidovits, Paul (2007), Physics in Biology and Medicine, Academic Press, pp. 204–05, ISBN 978-0-12-369411-
9
91. Jackson, Mark (4 November 2013), Theoretical physics – like sex, but with no need to experiment (http://theconv
ersation.com/theoretical-physics-like-sex-but-with-no-need-to-experiment-19409), The Conversation
92. Van Riper, A. Bowdoin (2002), Science in popular culture: a reference guide, Westport: Greenwood Press, p. 69,
ISBN 0-313-31822-0
93. Van Riper, op.cit., p. 71.

References
Nahvi, Mahmood; Joseph, Edminister (1965), Electric Circuits, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 9780071422413
Hammond, Percy (1981), "Electromagnetism for Engineers", Nature, Pergamon, 168 (4262): 4,
Bibcode:1951Natur.168....4G (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1951Natur.168....4G), doi:10.1038/168004b0 (ht
tps://doi.org/10.1038%2F168004b0), ISBN 0-08-022104-1
Morely, A.; Hughes, E. (1994), Principles of Electricity (5th ed.), Longman, ISBN 0-582-22874-3
 Naidu, M.S.; Kamataru, V. (1982), High Voltage Engineering, Tata McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-451786-4
Nilsson, James; Riedel, Susan (2007), Electric Circuits, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-13-198925-2
Patterson, Walter C. (1999), Transforming Electricity: The Coming Generation of Change, Earthscan, ISBN 1-
85383-341-X
Benjamin, P. (1898). A history of electricity (The intellectual rise in electricity) from antiquity to the days of
Benjamin Franklin (https://books.google.com/books?id=VLsKAAAAIAAJ). New York: J. Wiley & Sons.

External links
Media related to Electricity at Wikimedia Commons

Basic Concepts of Electricity (http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/DC/DC_1.html) chapter from

Lessons In Electric Circuits Vol 1 DC (http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/DC/index.html) book and
series (http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/).
"One-Hundred Years of Electricity", May 1931, Popular Mechanics (https://books.google.com/books?id=n-MDAA
AAMBAJ&pg=PA772&dq=Popular+Mechanics+1931+curtiss#v=onepage&q&f=true)
Illustrated view of how an American home's electrical system works (http://www.hometips.com/hyhw/electrical/ele
ctric.html)
Electricity around the world (http://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/)
Electricity Misconceptions (http://amasci.com/miscon/elect.html)
Electricity and Magnetism (https://web.archive.org/web/20151201064159/http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electr
omag/java/diode/index.html)
Understanding Electricity and Electronics in about 10 Minutes (http://steverose.com/Articles/UnderstandingBasic
Electri.html)
World Bank report on Water, Electricity and Utility subsidies (http://water.worldbank.org/water/publications/water-
electricity-and-poor-who-benefits-utility-subsidies/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electricity&oldid=923411828"

This page was last edited on 28 October 2019, at 11:46 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.