Electricity is ... Definition of a concept

Electricity is the term used in the course of physics. Let us analyze the definition of a given physical quantity, the features of appearance, application.

Definition

What is electricity? Definition in physics implies a set of different phenomena associated with the movement of electric charge.

This term was introduced by the English scientist William Gilbert in 1600. He tried to explain the essence of the phenomena occurring when the magnetic compass acts on the body. It was they who were in practice confirmed the existence of electrification of bodies.

Pages of History

Electricity is a phenomenon that has been tried to explain already in the days of ancient Greece. Philosophers who lived in the seventh century BC, found that when rubbing amber on natural wool, it acquires the ability to attract various objects to itself.

In the seventeenth century, the German Otto von Guericke created an electrostatic machine consisting of a sulfur ball planted on a metal rod. Such a construction allowed him to observe not only the attraction of objects, but also their repulsion.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the Englishman Stephen Gray carried out a series of experiments on the transmission of electrical energy to a certain distance. He managed to find out that depending on the composition of the material, the ability to conduct electric current varies.

What is electricity? The concept, the essence of this physical phenomenon, was explained by the Frenchman Charles Dufet. During various experiments he received resin and glass electricity, appearing during the rubbing of silk glass, resin to wool. In the middle of the eighteenth century, Peter van Mushenbrook developed an electric condenser, called the Leiden Bank. Simultaneously, experiments on the study of atmospheric electricity were conducted by the Russian scientist MV Lomonosov.

At the end of the eighteenth century, Coulomb discovered the law according to which electricity is the motion of charged particles.

In the early nineteenth century, the physicist Oersted identified an electromagnetic interaction. He opened and closed the circuit, observing the oscillations of the arrow of the compass, located near the conductor with the current. Amper found that magnetism and electricity are connected in cases where there is no static electricity.

Faraday, using the results of the experiments of Ampere and Oersted, discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction. It was they who developed the generator of electrical energy, consisting of a magnetized core, a coil. Through it, electricity passed. The meaning of the word after the experiments were associated with the motion of charged particles.

The work of Maxwell became the crown of all electromagnetic phenomena. In the twentieth century, the quantum theory of electrodynamics appeared. She answered all the questions that remained with scientists for that period of time.

What is the electric charge

We have already found out that electricity is a quantity that is related to the motion of charged particles. And what is an electrical charge? It means the ability to create an electric field around the conductor. Bodies that have the same charge, repel, and different - are attracted. It is as the particles move that the electric current is transferred inside the conductor.

Natural electricity

As a bright manifestation of electric current in the living world, consider lightning. Its electrical nature was established in the eighteenth century. It was the lightning that caused numerous forest fires. The potential difference that occurs between the layers of the atmosphere and the Earth's surface is 400 kV.

The processes occurring in the nervous system are also related to the passage of an electric charge. For example, during a voltage rise on the cell membrane, there is a voltage jump, which in biology is considered a nerve impulse. With its help, you can transfer information from one cell to another. Fishes use electricity to search underwater production, as well as to protect themselves from enemies.

For example, South American electric acne can generate discharges of electricity up to five hundred volts. Lamprey and sharks can use electricity to detect prey. Special electric receptors catch the fields of other organisms.

Conclusion

Experiments conducted with electricity, contributed to the technical progress. It is on the basis of electric current that a variety of instruments are used, used for everyday life of a person, in science and technology.

To fully satisfy all the requests that put forward the reality to electricity, powerful current generators were developed. Their work is based on the theory of electricity and magnetism, discussed above.