Electricity FAQ's! What is electricity? Basically electricity is a flow of electric charge through a conductor (a metal wire). Electric flow than can be converted into heat - by electric range, into light - by a light bulb or into mechanical energy by an engine. Is there any direction in the electric flow? Yes. Electricity in our homes flows back and forth very fast. It has alternating current. Current that flows steadily in one direction is called direct current - like in batteries. What is a conductor? A conductor is a material that is able to conduct electricity? It contains free charged particles mostly electrons sometimes ions that can move through this material. Generally metals are good conductors. What is an insulator? An insulator has the opposite properties of a conductor. It does not allow electric charges to flow through it. Insulators are important for electrical safety. Glass, rubber, plastic, dry wood, dry air are good insulators. What is resistance and how it affects conduction? Resistance is material's opposition to the conduction of electric flow. Resistance occurs when electrons moving in the material hit the atoms and give up energy in form of heat. A good conductor has low resistance. The semiconductor has higher resistance and insulators have so high resistance, that electric flow through them is not possible. What is static electricity? Everybody from as has already experienced the static electricity in the form of a slight electric shock. An example is when you walk across a rug on a dry day. Contact between your feet and rug causes transfer of electrons from your body to the rug, charging your body positively. Than when you touch the doorknob or any metal, electrons from this object jump to your body giving you a slight shock. Static electricity happens when an object can loose or gain large number of electrons and that way is charged positively (lost electrons) or negatively (gained electrons). Is lightning the result of static electricity? Yes. Scientists believe that raindrops in the winds of clouds form up electric charge. Parts of the clouds become than positively charged, while other parts become negatively charged. Electric spark we call lightning than jumps between differently charged parts of clouds. Can we talk about electricity inside of our body? Yes. In our body electrical signals travel along nerves carrying information from and to the brain. Electrical impulses from the brain tell our muscles to move, our heart to beat, lungs to breathe. Our whole body is controlled by our brain this way. The information is sent from every system than back to brain. What is an electric shock? Electric shock is passage of electric current through the body. It destroys body's own electrical signals normally travelling along the nerves to regulate whole body. As a result heart stops beating, our body stops breathing and all systems functioning. Electric current also causes burns of skin and muscles.