Ask The Sietch – Energy Vs Electricity

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Got this question from the forums, Jennifer asks,

Hello there,
I have a serious question for you. The question is what does Energy and Electricity mixed together make? Also i am very serious about this and this project is due in another 2 days.

First lets talk about electricity. I am not sure what grade you are in so forgive me if you find this answer simple, but I always find that starting simple is the best way to go. Electricity is all around us every day, it makes our light bulbs shine, it makes our computers work, it also causes your hair to stand up. Most people however do not know much about electricity, where it comes from, or how it gets to your house, or how it makes your light bulb shine, or make your hair stand up. In fact the only time most people think about electricity is when the power goes out.

So what is electricity anyway? As you may know everything in the universe (anything with mass) is made up of tiny little things called atoms. These atoms make up you, me, the moon, the earth, and everything else. These atoms are themselves made up of even smaller things called protons, neutrons, and electrons. Here is a very simple image of an atom, I say simple because this is not really how atoms look but the model is useful for showing what I am talking about.

atom

The small “-” balls around the outside are electrons, the yellow “+” balls are protons, and the orange balls are neutrons. Pretty neat, huh!

So you might be thinking to yourself, “I wonder if electrons have anything to do with electricity?” If you thought that they did you would be right. Electrons usually remain pretty close to the center of the atom. They are organized into different layers, with some electrons near the middle, and some on the outside. These electrons on the outside can be pushed out of their layer. Applying a force can make them move from one atom to another. These moving electrons are electricity.

So electricity is the movement of electrons from one atom to another. It takes some sort of force to knock these electrons loose, it might be rubbing a balloon on your head, or it might be a gust of wind and a wind turbine, or it might be sunlight on a solar panel, or it might be burning gas, or coal, or oil. That is why electricity is called a secondary power source, because we have to use power to make it.

Here are some other good websites to look at to learn more about electricity.

Facts about electricity
what is electricity?

So now onto Energy. Energy is defines as the capacity to do work. What this means is a little harder to understand. Energy is the property something has that enables it to do work. The unit of energy is the joule (J). The basic forms of energy are kinetic energy and potential energy. The law of conservation of energy states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, although it may change from one form to another.

Kinetic energy is the energy of motion; the energy a moving object has because of its motion. If you are in a car and it is moving very fast you will have a lot of stored up kinetic energy, if you were to suddenly stop that car (use up all its kinetic energy) you would continue to move forward because you still have plenty of kinetic energy, this is why we have seat belts.

Potential energy is the energy possessed by an object because of its height above the ground. The amount of potential energy possessed by an object depends on its mass and its height. A roller coaster car is initially hauled by a motor and chain system to the top of a tall hill, giving it a large quantity of potential energy. We release this potential energy when we let the roller coaster roll down the hill.

So your question of what do we get if we mix the two is a trick question. Electricity IS energy. Electricity is a type of force that has the potential to do work.

I hope you do well on your project!