Invisible force school series 2

 Electricity — The Invisible Force We Use Every Day

We learnt about electricity in school—current, voltage, resistance, circuits and Ohm's law. We remembered the formulas for the examination and promptly forgot most of them.

But electricity is actually a fascinating story.

Electricity begins with electrons, tiny particles associated with atoms. When these electrons move through a suitable material, we get electric current.

Think of a simple circuit. A battery provides the push, wires provide a path, and a bulb or motor uses the electrical energy.

Three words we learnt in school are particularly important:

Voltage — the electrical push.

Current — the flow of electric charge.

Resistance — the opposition to that flow.

This is expressed in the familiar formula:

V = I × R

But perhaps the most interesting part is what happens when we switch on a light.

We do not send a fresh supply of electrons from the power station to the bulb each time. The wires already contain enormous numbers of electrons. The electric field established through the circuit causes them to move and transfer energy.

And electricity is not merely what comes from a wall socket. It is present in lightning, nerves, batteries, computers, motors and even the tiny electrical signals that allow our hearts and brains to function.

We learnt the chapter in school.

But we were really learning about one of the invisible forces that makes modern civilisation possible.

Perhaps the lesson we forgot was the most interesting one: we live in a world surrounded by electricity, yet we cannot see it. We see only what it makes possible.