Understanding Electricity Study Notes
Uncontrolled Electricity is Lightning
Chapter 1 The Shocking History of Electricity
Benjamin Franklin 1752 Used a key attached to a kite to attract lightning.
Ancient Greece 600 BC discovered static electricity, electricity that does not move.
Luigi Galvani – Italian Scientist 1786 Frog observation that muscles moved because they contained electricity.
Prosthesis artificial legs or arms moving using electricity.
Alessandro Volta created the Voltaic pile in 1800, a combination of zinc and silver discs piled on top of each other with a cloth soaked in salt water separating them. This battery proved that electricity didn’t come from an animal muscle, but from metal in a wet environment.
In 1967, Richard Keefer invented a battery that could run on garbage.
In 1890 electricity arrived in Saskatchewan. Before that people relied on nature, animals, and themselves to get the job done.
Most houses in Saskatchewan were lit and heated by a stove in the middle of the one-room house, and most tasks had to be performed in the daytime because there was no so9urce of light in the evenings other than a small candle or a coal oil lamp.
Lives have changed dramatically because of the innovations of scientific and engineering pioneers working with electricity.
Chapter 2 Static Electricity
Lightning is a natural, large-scale static shock that is created when the clouds build up charge.
In 1891, Nikola Tesla invented the Tesla coil, which recreated the effects of lightning in a way that could be controlled by humans. The Tesla coil has been used to develop many inventions that we use on a daily basis like X-rays, wireless radio ins and television picture tubes.
Chapter 3 Making Static Useful
Scientists have been experimenting with static electricity and the ideas of attraction and repulsion for a long time. Engineers developed machines that have improved the way we do many tasks.
2 Uses of Static Electricity - Photocopier, automotive painting
Chapter 4 Where Does Electricity Come From? Renewable Resources
Renewable energy resource can be used over and over. It is never used up.
Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by the force of water. Hydroelectric generating stations create electricity by having a flow of water turn a generator. A spinning generator changes the energy of its motion into electrical energy. Water needed to spin the generator usually comes from a river that has been blocked by a dam. The blocked water forms a reservoir that can be used for both recreational activities and farm irrigation.
Electricity is sometimes called electric power (or “power” for short) and electricity generating facilities are also called power stations.
Solar Energy
Solar Energy is energy from the sun, which is available everywhere. The collection and use of the free heat energy from the Sun for household heating is called passive solar heating. When solar energy is used in conjunction with other electrical devices, it is called active solar heating. When solar energy is used in conjunction with other electrical devices it is called active solar heating.
Problems of Solar Energy
- The sun only shines for part of the day
- A solar cell is expensive
- Generating solar electricity takes up a lot of space
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is heat trapped under Earth’s surface. The heat is produced by hot melted rock under Earth’s crust coming in contact with groundwater. This heats up the water and creates large amounts of steam.
Positive effects of Geothermal energy
- Very reliable
- Few environmental impacts.
Problems with Geothermal Energy
- Power plants need to be very close to the geothermal source which may be hard to reach or in a famous beauty spot.
- Production from geothermal energy is a new process
- Water pollution due to chemicals
Craik, Saskatchewan. The Craik Sustainable Living Project is using a combination of efficient building design and integrated heating, cooling, and renewable energy systems.. The walls are of durum wheat straw bales, and large windows help to maximize passive solar heating. Extra heating is obtained by a heat exchange system.
Wind Energy
Wind is free, renewable, and emission free. Windmill can be set up faster than dams or coal power plants.
Problems
Wind speed is variable, turbines break, birds can be killed flying into them, and the electricity is expensive to generate. Also, a large area of land is needed for “wind farms”. There is also a possibility of noise pollution from the sound of blades for those living close by.
Biomass
Biomass is any plant or animal material that can be safely burned and makes good fuel. Biomass energy generation reuses organic material to produce energy.
