1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,920 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,920 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette and 5 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:23,119 Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 6 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,279 Speaker 1: Sitting on the opposite side of this here table as 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. For those about to rock, 8 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: we salute you. I know, I'm all amped up for 9 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 1: this conversation. Yeah. Today we're going to talk about A 10 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,840 Speaker 1: C and d C electrical currents and what they mean, 11 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,520 Speaker 1: and why do we have them? And who are you? 12 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,880 Speaker 1: Oh now, the third one we're gonna skip now that 13 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:56,480 Speaker 1: who are you? As a different band entirely h C 14 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:00,280 Speaker 1: SID so anyway, he C d C. So we're talking 15 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,160 Speaker 1: about direct current that would be d C and alternating 16 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:07,040 Speaker 1: current that's a C. That's the two main forms of 17 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: electricity that we're familiar with, and they have a pretty 18 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:15,520 Speaker 1: long history that includes one of the most famous rivalries 19 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 1: in technology. And we've talked about it before and we're 20 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: gonna talk about it again. Yes, as uh as we speak, 21 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: I currently have a picture of Nicola Tesla staring at 22 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: the side of my head. He's on the wall here. 23 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 1: He wants to make sure you get this right. Yeah, 24 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 1: we also have Edison somewhere in this room. Actually he's 25 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: further back in the other part of the studio, but yes, 26 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,120 Speaker 1: Edison is also here. So Edison and Tesla are the 27 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: two names of the the inventors who were kind of 28 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: the the the face behind these two technologies. Edison, of 29 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: course was a direct current guy, and Tesla was all 30 00:01:55,200 --> 00:02:00,480 Speaker 1: about the alternating current. And they both are argued that 31 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: their approach was the best. And it kind of makes 32 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: sense that Edison did it because there was a lot 33 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: of money at stake. Well, and and to some degree 34 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,320 Speaker 1: both of them were right and both of them were wrong, 35 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:13,640 Speaker 1: and sort of depends on the application. All depends on 36 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:17,200 Speaker 1: the application and the and the source of power that 37 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:22,240 Speaker 1: you're using. So, uh, should we talk about the actual power? Well, 38 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:24,360 Speaker 1: before we do that, I just wanted to make one other, 39 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:28,040 Speaker 1: one other mention. So those were the men, right, you 40 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: had Edison and Tesla, those were the two men who 41 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,919 Speaker 1: were really at the forefront of this fight. Well there 42 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 1: was one other, George Westinghouse. Yes, Well that's what I 43 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,960 Speaker 1: was going to say, is that behind these men were 44 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,200 Speaker 1: companies you had you had Westinghouse, who wasn't really a company, 45 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:45,959 Speaker 1: but you know west We now know of Westinghouse as 46 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 1: a company. But we had Westinghouse on one side, in 47 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: General Electric on the other. Yeah, and Westinghouse was backing Tesla, 48 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:57,959 Speaker 1: and General Electric of course was Edison's Companies is backing Edison. Um, 49 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: so should we should we start with the the actual 50 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:03,760 Speaker 1: current and what it does and stuff like that, and 51 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 1: then we can talk about the people. Let's talk about 52 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: the current first because that's the easiest. So we know, 53 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:13,079 Speaker 1: we've talked about circuits, and we talked about batteries. That's 54 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: an easy way to understand direct current. With direct current, 55 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: you've got you have a negative poll and you have 56 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: a positive poll on whatever or your power source is. 57 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:26,359 Speaker 1: So let's say it's a battery. You've got your your 58 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: negative end and your positive end. The negative end that's 59 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: where all the electrons are. Electrons have a negative charge, 60 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: positive end. There is an absence of electrons. Now electrons, 61 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 1: you know, like charges repel each other and opposite charges 62 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: attract each other. Yes, so those electrons really want to 63 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: get to that positive end because they do not like 64 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 1: being all crammed up together. So when you put a 65 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:54,560 Speaker 1: power source into a circuit, that circuit is really a pathway. 66 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,680 Speaker 1: It's a pathway from the negative end to the positive end. 67 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: And the electrons say, yippie, we can go to the 68 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 1: positive end. And they just run as fast as they can, 69 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:05,280 Speaker 1: except they don't really run because electrons don't have legs. 70 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: But they go as fast as they can through the pathway. 71 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: And let's say that you decide, you know what, while 72 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:14,160 Speaker 1: these guys are running really fast, I'd like them to 73 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: do a little work. I want them to light a 74 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:17,599 Speaker 1: light bulb. So I'm gonna put a light bulb right 75 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: here in the middle of the pathway that they have 76 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:21,679 Speaker 1: to go through before they can get to the other side. 77 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: The electrons say, don't care, just want to get to 78 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:27,400 Speaker 1: the positive end. We and they run through that pathway. 79 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: They run through the lightbulb, they light up the light bulb, 80 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 1: but they keep on going till they hit the positive end. Right. 81 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:38,160 Speaker 1: That's direct current. It's all moving in one direction. You know. 82 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: They play that little song too before they and then 83 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 1: they have to pay royalties to that guy who's suing 84 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,919 Speaker 1: the bugle. Yeah, you haven't heard about that. That's a 85 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:50,840 Speaker 1: different discussion. We'll we'll leave it off for it for 86 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:55,159 Speaker 1: this but anyway, so yeah, that's excuse me, that's direct current. 87 00:04:55,240 --> 00:05:01,280 Speaker 1: It's it's a very simple way of delivering electricity. However, Uh, 88 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: simple does not always mean good because simple also means 89 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:08,279 Speaker 1: that you are limited. And uh, and so now I 90 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:11,039 Speaker 1: guess we should talk about what alternating current is and 91 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 1: then we can talk about why there was this rivalry 92 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 1: between direct and alternating current. Yeah. Well, so Edison believed 93 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:25,800 Speaker 1: that direct current was the best application of electricity to 94 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,680 Speaker 1: bring power to people's homes, and so all his stuff 95 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 1: use this technology. But Tesla saw a different way to 96 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:37,040 Speaker 1: do this, and he decided that alternating current would work better. Now, 97 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:41,719 Speaker 1: alternating current it's sort of weird because, uh to think 98 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:47,960 Speaker 1: about because and when you learn about basic circuits um 99 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:50,640 Speaker 1: in for example, shop class or something like that, where 100 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: you're creating a simple circuits that you've got your battery 101 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 1: and your light bulb at a switch and you hook 102 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,279 Speaker 1: everything up and you flip the switch and like is on. 103 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:02,720 Speaker 1: They unflipped the switch or flip it back the other 104 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,359 Speaker 1: way and the light goes off, Like okay, I got it. 105 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 1: You know, exactly what Jonathan just said. It went from 106 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 1: one end to the other. But alternating current goes change, 107 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: it changes direction within the wires every every so often 108 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:19,480 Speaker 1: it goes let's just oversimplify, as we are apt or 109 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: are prone to do on this show. Uh, left to 110 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 1: right and then from right to left. So that's a 111 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,760 Speaker 1: little bit more difficult to explain. Yeah, it's using it's 112 00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: essentially using magnets. Really, it's using magnets too. If you 113 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:33,640 Speaker 1: were to think of it in the sense of the battery, 114 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 1: it'd be swapping the the battery ends really really rapidly. 115 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:41,839 Speaker 1: But it's what it's doing. This through magnets, not through batteries. 116 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: And uh. And by moving this back and forth, you 117 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: are changing the flow of electricity through those wires several 118 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,479 Speaker 1: times a second. Um, I believe. Let's see, in the 119 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:54,600 Speaker 1: United States, I believe that's sixty times a second, and 120 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: in Europe I think it's fifty. I believe that is correct, 121 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: which is why why you have to have various adapters 122 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:04,200 Speaker 1: when you move between the United States and Europe. And 123 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: you know sort of thing happens in other nations as well. Yes, 124 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: I was correct, um, And we do have an article 125 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:13,600 Speaker 1: on the website about how electricity works that goes into 126 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 1: alternating current and direct current. I do recommend you check 127 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:18,800 Speaker 1: that out because it'll have a lot some helpful information. 128 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: We also have information on other elements will be talking 129 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 1: about shortly, like transformers, but we'll get into that in 130 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:28,200 Speaker 1: a second. So, yeah, and the alternating current, the current 131 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: reverses sixty times per second in the US or fifty 132 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,920 Speaker 1: times in a second in Europe. And that's what you 133 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,200 Speaker 1: get out of the wall socket. And you might say, well, 134 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:42,960 Speaker 1: why would you want to to have the alternating current 135 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: moving back and forth like that? Well, on its on 136 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: on the face of it, if you were just saying 137 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:51,640 Speaker 1: direct current versus alternating current, and you're just looking at 138 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: the way that they are providing power to whatever load 139 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: you've put on the pathway, like in my example it 140 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:01,040 Speaker 1: was that light bulb. If that's all you're looking at, 141 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: there's no real huge advantage of direct current over alternating 142 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: current or vice versa. They both are providing power to 143 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:13,680 Speaker 1: the load you're talking about it It only comes when 144 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:15,559 Speaker 1: it only gets down to when you are talking about 145 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:21,480 Speaker 1: generating power and delivering that power to another location. That's 146 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:25,280 Speaker 1: when you start looking at uh the advantages of alternating 147 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: current over direct current, and that's the the that was 148 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: the heart of the issue between Tesla and Edison. Edison 149 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:36,600 Speaker 1: had a lot of money invested in direct current, and 150 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:39,960 Speaker 1: he had a lot of patents uh that were directly 151 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 1: involved with direct current, and he was drawing royalties from 152 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:47,520 Speaker 1: those patents. Because you had power stations that would be 153 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 1: using direct current, they'd have to pay a fee to Edison. 154 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:54,480 Speaker 1: So it was within his financial interest to really promote 155 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:57,720 Speaker 1: direct current. And Edison was a master promoter. That was 156 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:01,040 Speaker 1: one of the things he was amazing at along with 157 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:04,079 Speaker 1: you know, he was a brilliant inventor as well, but 158 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 1: he was also a great marketer. Tesla not as much, 159 00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:09,640 Speaker 1: but Tesla felt that he was in the right. We 160 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: get that argument a lot through the whole Tesla story. Yeah, Tesla. 161 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:19,520 Speaker 1: Tesla though, like to do demonstrations with electricity that showed 162 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 1: him basically holding onto a source of electricity and there 163 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,719 Speaker 1: were sparks and things, and it it freaked a lot 164 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:29,400 Speaker 1: of people out. But Edison had had a particular demonstration. Well, 165 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:32,120 Speaker 1: we will have to talk about that really freaks people 166 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:34,640 Speaker 1: up to I'm hoping that we can keep that discussion 167 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: to a minimum because that still turns my stomach. But anyway, 168 00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:43,559 Speaker 1: so we should we should continue talking about the delivering power. 169 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:48,079 Speaker 1: So um yeah, the for edison to use the direct 170 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:51,840 Speaker 1: current doesn't doesn't really travel well, or didn't back in 171 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:55,840 Speaker 1: the day. They have found ways to to provide to 172 00:09:56,040 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: help it travel long distances better now, But at the time, 173 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:04,440 Speaker 1: you had to have local power stations, very local power stations, 174 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:07,000 Speaker 1: like within a mile or two of wherever it was 175 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: you were delivering power, and you could you had to 176 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: deliver the same amount of power that your load was 177 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,000 Speaker 1: going to require. Um. In other words, you can't change 178 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:21,480 Speaker 1: the voltage easily on a direct current system. And the 179 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:23,840 Speaker 1: reason why that's important is let's say that you have 180 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:27,760 Speaker 1: a h you have you have a device, or you 181 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:29,960 Speaker 1: have you know, you have some sort of electronic load 182 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:34,920 Speaker 1: that's going to require oh um a certain number of 183 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:38,280 Speaker 1: volts will say a hundred volts, and that means that 184 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:41,560 Speaker 1: for a direct current uh generator, you would have to 185 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:44,080 Speaker 1: generate a hundred volts actually be around a hundred and 186 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 1: ten because you do lose some electricity. There's a leakage 187 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:53,200 Speaker 1: issue with direct current that that that gets worse over distance. 188 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,559 Speaker 1: So you would have to um, you would have to 189 00:10:57,559 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 1: actually have a generator that created the same voltage as 190 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:01,960 Speaker 1: what you were going to consume. And if you had 191 00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:06,679 Speaker 1: a lot of different demands on this electricity, like you 192 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,120 Speaker 1: had a lot of different things that use different voltage, 193 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:12,360 Speaker 1: then you would have to have a different generator for 194 00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:17,240 Speaker 1: each kind. And that's not very efficient either. And uh 195 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: and because this these two problems, the fact that you 196 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:24,640 Speaker 1: could not send power over really long distances and you 197 00:11:24,679 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: couldn't change the voltage easily, there were some disadvantages to this, 198 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: and the biggest one is probably the distance thing, because 199 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:33,920 Speaker 1: it meant that you had to build generators all over 200 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 1: the place if you wanted to distribute electricity over a region. 201 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:41,480 Speaker 1: And this got problematic, particularly when you go out to 202 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:45,280 Speaker 1: rural areas, because are you going to build a generator 203 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:48,880 Speaker 1: for every couple of houses that are miles and miles 204 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:52,719 Speaker 1: and miles Apart that that's not very cost effective for 205 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,040 Speaker 1: the people who live there, why would they even adopt 206 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:58,600 Speaker 1: electricity if that? If it meant essentially that they had 207 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:02,600 Speaker 1: to have their own generator right there, and and so 208 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:07,440 Speaker 1: alternating current got around this, and I guess I guess 209 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 1: to really understand this you kind of have to talk about, uh, 210 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:16,240 Speaker 1: current versus voltage. So because voltage is is really and 211 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:18,480 Speaker 1: this is sort of weird to think about, it's a 212 00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:22,360 Speaker 1: unit of electrical pressure rather than current, which is the 213 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,680 Speaker 1: number of electrons. Really, so you you measure we talked 214 00:12:26,679 --> 00:12:30,320 Speaker 1: about current in terms of amps, and amps really refers 215 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 1: to the number of electrons that are moving through that 216 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: that circuit. Voltage, like you said, is more like pressure. 217 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:40,719 Speaker 1: It's the amount of power you've put behind those electrons. 218 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:44,240 Speaker 1: So if you had high voltage low low amps, then 219 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 1: you would have relatively few electrons moving with a lot 220 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:50,760 Speaker 1: of power. If you had low voltage high amps, you 221 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 1: have a lot of electrons moving at low power um 222 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:58,960 Speaker 1: And if high voltages travel further, it's because you know, 223 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,680 Speaker 1: you've put a huge amount of energy into this this current, 224 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: and it's going to push the electrons further than it 225 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:09,240 Speaker 1: would with less leakage than it would if you had 226 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:12,480 Speaker 1: a low voltage. See now I'm thinking of a different 227 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:16,600 Speaker 1: song by the same band you quoted initially. Voltage. So 228 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:18,439 Speaker 1: in other words, in other words, let's say that you've 229 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:21,760 Speaker 1: got imagine you have a pipe in front of you 230 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:23,959 Speaker 1: and it's a you've got a bowling ball that will 231 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,880 Speaker 1: fit inside this pipe. So that's a pretty big diameter, right, 232 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:30,559 Speaker 1: doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the reason why I'm saying. 233 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:32,880 Speaker 1: Let's say that let's say that you get a little 234 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:35,480 Speaker 1: kid to give that bowling ball a push. Well, that 235 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:37,520 Speaker 1: bowling ball is only gonna go so far. And then 236 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,760 Speaker 1: let's say you get a guy in the World's Strongest 237 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:43,839 Speaker 1: Man competition to get come along and give it a 238 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:45,560 Speaker 1: push as hard as he can. That ball is gonna 239 00:13:45,559 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: go much further. Well with direct current because the generator 240 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:53,120 Speaker 1: had to be the same voltage as whatever the this 241 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:58,120 Speaker 1: that the actual receiving um appliance or or load was 242 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:01,240 Speaker 1: going to be. You couldn't crease that voltage to make 243 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:04,920 Speaker 1: the current go further because if you did, then your 244 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,960 Speaker 1: loads wouldn't work anymore. They be overloaded because you know, 245 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,280 Speaker 1: the voltage would be way too high. But alternating current, 246 00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: because those electrons change direction, they create something else that 247 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: allows you to boost and then reduce the voltage along 248 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:24,960 Speaker 1: power lines. So the power that comes out of a 249 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,800 Speaker 1: power generator, uh, the electricity that comes out of a 250 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:31,280 Speaker 1: generator plant doesn't necessarily have to be the same voltage 251 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,640 Speaker 1: as what's actually traveling through the power lines on the 252 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:37,520 Speaker 1: power grid. Now you need something to step up the voltage, 253 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: which is the transformer. And they are indeed more than 254 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: meets the eye, but they are not robots that change 255 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: into other forms. A transformer, UH is a way to 256 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:54,920 Speaker 1: change from one voltage to another, and it's actually at 257 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:59,280 Speaker 1: its heart, a transformer is incredibly simple and it all 258 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:04,120 Speaker 1: has to do with the relationship between electricity and magnetism, 259 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,440 Speaker 1: which we have talked about many, many times on this podcast, 260 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: but in general, if you've forgotten, if you if you 261 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,560 Speaker 1: have if you're just tuting it. Yeah, if you have 262 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:17,320 Speaker 1: current moving through a wire and you and that will 263 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,760 Speaker 1: generate a magnetic field, particularly if you're alternating that current, 264 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,640 Speaker 1: it creates a an alternating magnetic field. All right, So 265 00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:28,720 Speaker 1: the currents reversing back and forth through this line that's 266 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:33,280 Speaker 1: creating this this uh magnetic field that itself is changing 267 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:35,920 Speaker 1: over and over again. So let's say you've got a 268 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: coil of wire next to an alternating magnetic field, of 269 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,720 Speaker 1: magnetic field that's influx, it's changing over and over again. Well, 270 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 1: if the magnetic field is changing and the coil of 271 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:49,680 Speaker 1: wire is close enough, that's going to induce electrons to 272 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:56,040 Speaker 1: flow through the wire. All right, So using this we 273 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:59,280 Speaker 1: can make alternating current and create a and create a transformer. 274 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 1: You have one coil of wire, that's your primary coil. 275 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,320 Speaker 1: You're running electricity through this coil and it's an alternating current, 276 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:10,200 Speaker 1: so it's going back and forth, reversing direction through through 277 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: this coil. You put a secondary coil near the primary coil. 278 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 1: The magnetic field generated by the primary coil will induce 279 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:22,560 Speaker 1: electricity in the secondary coil. And here's the really cool thing. 280 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,440 Speaker 1: The number of coils in the primary coil versus the 281 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: number of coils in the secondary coil will determine how 282 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:35,080 Speaker 1: the voltage changes. So it's very simple. Yeah, let's say 283 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:37,880 Speaker 1: that you have one coil in your primary coil, so 284 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 1: you just do one turn and that's it, and you 285 00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 1: have ten coils in your secondary coil. The amount of 286 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: voltage in the secondary coil that's generated from that magnetic 287 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:51,360 Speaker 1: magnetic flux will be ten times as strong as the 288 00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:54,640 Speaker 1: primary coil, so you have stepped up the voltage. So 289 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:58,040 Speaker 1: what you do is at your power generation plant, you 290 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,400 Speaker 1: have a primary coil that is a certain number of coils, 291 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:05,119 Speaker 1: and your secondary coil has way more coils, and the 292 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: ratio there will determine how much the voltage changes. You 293 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: then transmit that electricity through wires to wherever, you know, 294 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,920 Speaker 1: through to a residential neighborhood, let's say, Well, as the 295 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:22,879 Speaker 1: the electricity travels there, once it hits the the the 296 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:25,480 Speaker 1: the power lines, the power poles that have the connection 297 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:29,840 Speaker 1: to your house, there's a transformer on those those uh, 298 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:32,680 Speaker 1: essentially their telephone poles. That's what we think of them as, right, 299 00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:36,240 Speaker 1: they have they have transformers too. Now in that case, 300 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:41,399 Speaker 1: they their primary coils have more coils than the secondary coils, 301 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:44,360 Speaker 1: so the voltage is stepped down. And that means that 302 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:47,640 Speaker 1: even though the voltage in the power line that's coming 303 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,440 Speaker 1: down the street is really really high, way higher than 304 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:53,760 Speaker 1: what you need in your house, in fact, so high 305 00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:58,120 Speaker 1: that it's you know, incredibly deadly. Um, once it goes 306 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:00,119 Speaker 1: through that transformer and goes to your house, it's going 307 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,240 Speaker 1: to be at the right voltage for your home. Yes, 308 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:05,560 Speaker 1: and we usually in the United States that would be 309 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:07,720 Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty volts. Because remember we talked about 310 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:10,560 Speaker 1: it reversing sixty times a second, Well, you have to 311 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:12,879 Speaker 1: add the two sixties, right, the sixty positives and the 312 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,000 Speaker 1: sixty negatives for lack of a better term, add those 313 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:18,879 Speaker 1: together and it's not like sixty plus negative sixty at 314 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,359 Speaker 1: sixty plus sixty hundred twenty volts. And that solves the 315 00:18:22,359 --> 00:18:24,920 Speaker 1: problem that you were talking about earlier with the need 316 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:31,119 Speaker 1: for the generating Russian to be to match exactly the 317 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,359 Speaker 1: the the load at the other end, right, And it 318 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:37,439 Speaker 1: it solves the problem of the distance issue too, because 319 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:40,240 Speaker 1: you've you have upped the voltage so high that it's 320 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:43,000 Speaker 1: going to transmit over a much greater distance than direct 321 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: current will and so um, you've just solved that issue 322 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:49,960 Speaker 1: of how do you deliver electricity in an efficient way 323 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: so you don't have to build generators every couple of 324 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:57,520 Speaker 1: miles and uh, Tesla and Westinghouse I thought this was 325 00:18:57,560 --> 00:18:59,879 Speaker 1: a brilliant idea. Edison of course, did not like it 326 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:02,919 Speaker 1: because it did not it was it was it was 327 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:05,040 Speaker 1: a competing standard to his own, and it was going 328 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:06,240 Speaker 1: to mean that he was going to be out some 329 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 1: serious dough. So there there became a kind of a 330 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:17,520 Speaker 1: series of one upmanship demonstrations across well mostly the northeast, 331 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,800 Speaker 1: but uh, it was an attempt to to make to 332 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,760 Speaker 1: to try and have one standard come out the supreme 333 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 1: leader in electricity. Yeah. We uh, we've talked about these things, 334 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: not in then and then not terribly distant past. At 335 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,680 Speaker 1: this point when we're recording is um and I believe 336 00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:38,439 Speaker 1: I revealed at one point that I had read the 337 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:43,879 Speaker 1: book Empires of Light by Jill Jonas Um and I'm 338 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:47,199 Speaker 1: probably still mispronouncing her last name, UM, which is about 339 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:53,480 Speaker 1: this about the current wars, and uh, it paints a 340 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: really unflattering picture of Edison really when you learn a 341 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:00,919 Speaker 1: lot more about it. Um. Now, Tesla was sort of 342 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,879 Speaker 1: a eccentric. He was an eccentric. He also kind of 343 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:08,520 Speaker 1: liked to live the high life. Uh. He liked expensive 344 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:12,560 Speaker 1: stuff and eccentric dandy who got progressively crazier as he 345 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:16,440 Speaker 1: got older. I wouldn't say crazy, No, I would still 346 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:20,160 Speaker 1: be alive in some capacity. Um. Now I'm a crazy one. 347 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:23,480 Speaker 1: So yes, my co host is joining Tesla. No there, 348 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:27,399 Speaker 1: it's it's fun to just, you know, make those jokes. Uh. No, 349 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:31,120 Speaker 1: he uh, he wasn't really in the business of He 350 00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:33,040 Speaker 1: he liked to invent stuff and he actually at one 351 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 1: point worked for Edison. Um. They didn't always see eye 352 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 1: to eye. Before all this happened. Um and uh, I 353 00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:44,160 Speaker 1: think Tesla sort of felt like, based on what I've read, 354 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:47,200 Speaker 1: Tesla sort of felt like he was underappreciated and wanted 355 00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: to strike out on his own. And this was one 356 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: of the things, one of the many, many things. Of course, 357 00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 1: we talked about radio and how he worked on that. 358 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: He's um, he got involved with a lot of different 359 00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:59,800 Speaker 1: kinds of things. And I've also read that that in general, 360 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,240 Speaker 1: and this may be an over generalization, but in general 361 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: that Edison took a very experimental approach to learning things, 362 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,720 Speaker 1: Like he he was all about doing something and if 363 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,600 Speaker 1: that worked, then that's great, solve that problem. Whereas Tesla 364 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,120 Speaker 1: was more about understanding and thinking things through and then 365 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:22,399 Speaker 1: designing stuff that builds on that knowledge. So you know, 366 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:27,639 Speaker 1: it's two different approaches. And I've even seen it referred 367 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 1: to as Essen's approach being more of a brute force approach, 368 00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:33,440 Speaker 1: like you know, you try something and if it doesn't work, well, 369 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:35,280 Speaker 1: that's too bad. You go on and you do something else, 370 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,240 Speaker 1: and whereas Tesla was more of an architect, someone who 371 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:42,880 Speaker 1: would think things through before actually committing to action. Although 372 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,760 Speaker 1: one would argue based upon some of Tesla's later works 373 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:50,840 Speaker 1: that that was not always true. So we're talking about 374 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:55,040 Speaker 1: the one upsmanship, the battles between these two well Edison 375 00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,720 Speaker 1: Edison was really UM did a lot of his own 376 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:01,359 Speaker 1: promotion UM and Tesla UH did a lot of his 377 00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:04,920 Speaker 1: own personal promotion. UM. So they were really kind of 378 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:07,159 Speaker 1: different people. I mean Thatison was really working on his 379 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:11,800 Speaker 1: company and building that up UM and Tesla licensed his 380 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:17,320 Speaker 1: patents to UH George Westinghouses company. Westinghouse. He would also 381 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:19,200 Speaker 1: be sort of an interesting person to talk about with 382 00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:21,000 Speaker 1: on his own show, if we ever get around to that. 383 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:24,880 Speaker 1: But he invented a railroad break that was very very popular. 384 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:26,760 Speaker 1: He made a lot of money doing this, and he 385 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,160 Speaker 1: saw a way too. He started getting into the electric 386 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,680 Speaker 1: game two. He saw himself as a somebody who could 387 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:36,000 Speaker 1: actually take on Edison and some of the others who 388 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 1: were involved in this. They weren't the only two um 389 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:40,840 Speaker 1: because this was you know, it's like a lot of 390 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: stuff like UH computers and so many other things, the internet, 391 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:48,480 Speaker 1: uh phones. You know, at that point when when Edison 392 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,160 Speaker 1: and Tesla were really doing this, they were all there 393 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,000 Speaker 1: were many many inventors working on solutions to these problems. 394 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,919 Speaker 1: How were you going to wire up homes, building the 395 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:01,240 Speaker 1: infrastructure and that kind of stuff. So Westinghouse licensed Tesla's 396 00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:04,360 Speaker 1: patents and began building equipment. Um, and they've been They 397 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,320 Speaker 1: began competing for different projects, such as the Colombian Next 398 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:12,640 Speaker 1: Exhibition in Chicago, which was the World's Fair, and who 399 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,960 Speaker 1: was going to light the World's Fear because they really 400 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,240 Speaker 1: wanted to do this thing right. They wanted light bulbs 401 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,160 Speaker 1: everywhere because really, I mean there were very few people 402 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: who had their homes wired for light. Um, this was 403 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,800 Speaker 1: gonna be really cool, and they were. When they succeeded 404 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:31,360 Speaker 1: in doing so. Um, that was a huge, huge thing 405 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:33,600 Speaker 1: because people wanted to see it at night when everything 406 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,000 Speaker 1: was lit up with electric power. Yeah, that was in 407 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,640 Speaker 1: So while they are arguing over who gets to light 408 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:45,679 Speaker 1: up the World's Fair, Dr H. H. Holmes is creating 409 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,720 Speaker 1: his his Reign of Terror as America one of America's 410 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:52,119 Speaker 1: first serial killers. Yeah, just like i'd throw that out there. Stuff. 411 00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:55,280 Speaker 1: You should know did a show about him? Really? Yeah. 412 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:57,960 Speaker 1: There's actually a fantastic book called The Devil in the 413 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:03,119 Speaker 1: White City that is the story both about H. H. 414 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:07,919 Speaker 1: Holmes and his activities and the the preparation and execution 415 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:12,040 Speaker 1: of the World's Fair. And frankly, the World's Fair sections 416 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,560 Speaker 1: in that book were to me ten times more interesting 417 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:19,119 Speaker 1: than the story about the one of America's first serial killers. 418 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:21,480 Speaker 1: And it's kind of but it was. It's because you 419 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:25,000 Speaker 1: have these incredible personalities that were all mixing to make 420 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,680 Speaker 1: the World's Fair, and Tesla and Edison were two of them, 421 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:33,200 Speaker 1: and ultimately Tesla one and that was a bitter fight. Yeah, 422 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:35,879 Speaker 1: and UH and Edison. You know, he was not above 423 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:42,920 Speaker 1: some pretty outrageous displays to try and win people over 424 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,760 Speaker 1: to his side. One of his arguments was that because 425 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,440 Speaker 1: alternating current had these transformers, and because alternating current would 426 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:54,240 Speaker 1: UH would transform a low voltage into an incredibly high 427 00:24:54,320 --> 00:25:00,679 Speaker 1: voltage flow of electricity, he argued that all turning current 428 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:05,600 Speaker 1: was was inherently dangerous and direct current was safe or 429 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,240 Speaker 1: considerably safer. Exactly so he would demonstrate this, and this 430 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 1: is absolutely horrifying to anyone who's an animal lover, by 431 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:19,720 Speaker 1: holding UH a public hearing and then using alternating current 432 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:25,240 Speaker 1: to electrocute as in, to kill animals with electricity. UH. 433 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,960 Speaker 1: The the probably the most famous example of which was 434 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:34,959 Speaker 1: an elephant named Topsy. Yeah, Harold Brown sort of a 435 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,720 Speaker 1: bit player in this whole drama. Um was a guy 436 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,439 Speaker 1: that from what I can tell, uh and Empires of 437 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,760 Speaker 1: Light sort of came out of nowhere. He wasn't really 438 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: an employee of of the Edison company, but um. He 439 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:53,760 Speaker 1: was also of the belief that alternating current was extremely dangerous. 440 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 1: And Edison saw a way to promote the idea that 441 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,440 Speaker 1: a senating current was dangerous and direct current was safer, 442 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:08,000 Speaker 1: um by using Brown's experiments. And he you know, basically 443 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,720 Speaker 1: experimented on on animals and showing that, uh, the amount 444 00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: of current of alternating current would take to kill somebody 445 00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:18,560 Speaker 1: was considerably less than the amount of direct current it 446 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,919 Speaker 1: would take to kill somebody. Um. And they did experiments 447 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,560 Speaker 1: on animals both and and if I'm not mistaken, in 448 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:28,840 Speaker 1: private and in public the public demonstrations, you know, they 449 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,440 Speaker 1: they electrocuted dogs and other animals, including Topsy the elephant. 450 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:39,040 Speaker 1: And then they decided to uh promote a new way 451 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:45,600 Speaker 1: of uh dispensing justice. They built the electric chair. Look 452 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:48,399 Speaker 1: how dangerous alternating current is. They can use it to 453 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,520 Speaker 1: put criminals to death. And they promoted this as a 454 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:58,080 Speaker 1: way to you know, for one thing, they were uh 455 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,520 Speaker 1: theoretically providing a public service, right, you know, it's a 456 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 1: new way to to execute convicted criminals. But also it 457 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,359 Speaker 1: promoted their ends by saying, look, how dangerous alternating current is, 458 00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,480 Speaker 1: so we should all invest in direct current. Ultimately, that 459 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:18,119 Speaker 1: argument did not win, and so alternating current because it 460 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:20,760 Speaker 1: just made more sense financially as far as a way 461 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:25,480 Speaker 1: of distributing electricity across wide areas. Uh, that's what went out, 462 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,040 Speaker 1: I mean, and it makes sense in that use case. Right, 463 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,439 Speaker 1: It's not like direct current went away. It's not like 464 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,560 Speaker 1: we don't use direct current. And lots of different things 465 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:40,080 Speaker 1: right now. Yep. And in fact, um, depending on the device, 466 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:44,800 Speaker 1: you may be using both. You know, they're um, some 467 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: of the adapters that you plug in for portable electronics 468 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,560 Speaker 1: have a DC output even though they're taking their you know, yeah, exactly, 469 00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:55,280 Speaker 1: you're you're taking alternating current from the wall and then 470 00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:58,119 Speaker 1: the converter converts it from alternating current to direct current 471 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:02,400 Speaker 1: before it delivers the elector to whatever device you're using. Yes, yeah, 472 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:04,320 Speaker 1: there there are plenty of examples of that. And of 473 00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:06,439 Speaker 1: course if you have anything with a battery in it, 474 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,359 Speaker 1: well that's you know, a battery, Like we said, in 475 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,040 Speaker 1: the very first example, that's direct current unless you are 476 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,720 Speaker 1: having some weird way of swapping the batteries poles over 477 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: and over again, which I can't imagine you're doing that. 478 00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: Um then quick, yeah, yeah, that's a direct current. So 479 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,080 Speaker 1: so we still use both. And there are a lot 480 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:28,000 Speaker 1: of reasons why you would want to use direct current 481 00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:32,159 Speaker 1: for especially for anything that's like, you know, not connected 482 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,600 Speaker 1: to a power source, or not a power source but 483 00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:38,320 Speaker 1: a power plant. Um So there's we still use direct 484 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,480 Speaker 1: current and plenty of applications. But when it comes to 485 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:45,320 Speaker 1: delivering electricity across huge distances, alternating currents the way to go. 486 00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:47,800 Speaker 1: It makes perfect sense. By the way, have you ever 487 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:51,520 Speaker 1: seen a transformer blow? No, but I've heard them. I've 488 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:54,520 Speaker 1: seen it a few times. It is a pretty spectacular 489 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:58,760 Speaker 1: and incredibly startling thing to see. Yeah. Yeah, every once 490 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:01,400 Speaker 1: in a while you will hear one, uh you know, 491 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,240 Speaker 1: blowout in your neighborhood or actually there was one here 492 00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,120 Speaker 1: in the Atlanta area just yesterday that started a brush 493 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:09,960 Speaker 1: fire when it when it exploded. Yeah, you usually see 494 00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 1: a lot of sparks, and there's normally a very loud bang. Actually, 495 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:16,080 Speaker 1: there's always gonna be off really loud bang and it's Um. 496 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: I remember the first time it happened. I thought someone 497 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,000 Speaker 1: fired a shotgun off next to the car I was in, 498 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: because it was we were going down downtown Atlanta in 499 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:29,400 Speaker 1: a thunderstorm and a power surge caused the transformer to 500 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,960 Speaker 1: overlow and overload rather and it uh and it blew 501 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,880 Speaker 1: out the transformer. Uh. Yeah. And and transformers are a 502 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:38,280 Speaker 1: little more complicated than just two coils of wire. That's 503 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:43,560 Speaker 1: just the basic that's the that's the core of a transformer. Yeah, 504 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 1: we wanted you to understand the concept. You can. There's 505 00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:48,920 Speaker 1: there's plenty of reading to be done, believe me, on 506 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: on these things. Yeah. Check out our articles on electricity 507 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,719 Speaker 1: and transformers. Uh. They are They are very helpful. There 508 00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:57,880 Speaker 1: are a lot of really cool illustrations, and I think 509 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:02,320 Speaker 1: you'll find it interesting. Um. It definitely helped me understand 510 00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 1: a little better about the subject before we came in 511 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,720 Speaker 1: here today. Yeah. Yeah. And and although we were joking 512 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:12,560 Speaker 1: about the the toy slash movie transformers, we have articles 513 00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,440 Speaker 1: about that too. So if you are highly entertaining, if 514 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,800 Speaker 1: you want to read her about optimist prime, we've got 515 00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:22,320 Speaker 1: you covered. And real transformers or sort of actually, I 516 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:25,320 Speaker 1: think the one that's about the robots is called what 517 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:30,240 Speaker 1: are Real Transformers? Yeah? Exactly, Uh so, well, so yeah, 518 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:33,000 Speaker 1: check them out. Check them out. It's good stuff. And uh, 519 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,800 Speaker 1: let's know, if you guys want us to talk about 520 00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,320 Speaker 1: any particular subjects, We've been getting a lot of really 521 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:42,800 Speaker 1: good suggestions from Facebook, from Twitter, from email. Keep them 522 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:45,560 Speaker 1: coming because it makes our jobs much easier when we 523 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,280 Speaker 1: know what our listeners want to hear. And you know, 524 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,520 Speaker 1: we try not to concentrate on any one particular type 525 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,480 Speaker 1: of subject for too long other than technology. We seem 526 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:56,840 Speaker 1: to be stuck on that for some reason, So let 527 00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:58,960 Speaker 1: us know. You can let us know on Facebook or 528 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:02,280 Speaker 1: Twitter are hand Gold. There is text stuff h s 529 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,560 Speaker 1: W or you can send us an email on that 530 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,040 Speaker 1: addresses tech stuff at how stuff Works dot com and 531 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,360 Speaker 1: Chris and I will talk to you again really soon. 532 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:15,400 Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff 533 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,080 Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we 534 00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The 535 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:25,959 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today 536 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 1: on iTunes. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand 537 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:35,520 Speaker 1: twelve camera. It's ready, Are you