1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:14,080 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:16,959 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and I love all things tech and 5 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: in a recent episode, I talked about how scientists, doctors, 6 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: and philosophers had experimented with using the direct application of 7 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:33,279 Speaker 1: electricity in an effort to treat various medical conditions. In 8 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to take a further step back 9 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:40,839 Speaker 1: to understand the basics behind electricity itself. A lot of 10 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:43,680 Speaker 1: this is going to be a refresher course from science classes, 11 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: primarily in physics, but it's to cover stuff that often 12 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:51,199 Speaker 1: confuses people, and I'm including myself in that category. I 13 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,400 Speaker 1: often get confused to the point where I frequently have 14 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: to do a quick refresher. So I'm not a scientist, 15 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: I'm not an electrical engineer. I have to remind myself 16 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: on the basics whenever I talk about electricity. Complicating matters 17 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:07,880 Speaker 1: is that many text books for younger students in particular, 18 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:12,320 Speaker 1: frame electricity in ways that can be misleading. They oversimplify 19 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: ideas to the point where they're kind of, you know, wrong, 20 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: and I know I've been guilty of doing the same 21 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: thing on this show. After all, I am a product 22 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: of the educational system that relies on such textbooks, and 23 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: I didn't have a background and electrical engineering. I know 24 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 1: I have on many occasions described electricity as the flow 25 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:36,039 Speaker 1: of electrons, and that's not really the case. Now. Electrons 26 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 1: are charged sub atomic particles. They carry an electric charge. 27 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:45,399 Speaker 1: But electricity, a vague term at best, isn't about these 28 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: carrier particles. It's more about the electric charge itself. So 29 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: I have to actually unlearn what I had learned to 30 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: talk about this more accurately. So if you're like me, 31 00:01:58,000 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: then this episode is going to be great for you. 32 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: And if you already know electricity inside and out, you'll 33 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 1: probably find this episode a little too basic for your liking. 34 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: Or in a worst case scenario, you might hear me 35 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,240 Speaker 1: get something totally wrong. I'm working hard to prevent that, 36 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:16,600 Speaker 1: but I am human. So if I say something totally wrong, 37 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: feel free to call me out on it, but please 38 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: just be nice about it. I am well intentioned, and 39 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 1: if I make a mistake, I want to correct it. 40 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: Just don't drag me under the bus for it, all right, 41 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:33,079 Speaker 1: So Let's assume some of you out there are like 42 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: me and you don't have a background in working with electricity. 43 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:40,720 Speaker 1: Let's figure out why this is so confusing. I mean, 44 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: we do have different units of measurement all to describe 45 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:50,360 Speaker 1: various components of electricity and the behavior of electrical phenomena. 46 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:53,520 Speaker 1: You know, we have whats, we have what hours or 47 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:56,520 Speaker 1: more frequently, actually, really we have kill a lot hours. 48 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:00,680 Speaker 1: We have volts, we have amps, we have ohms. It 49 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,480 Speaker 1: can get a little overwhelming, so I'm gonna do my 50 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,400 Speaker 1: best to try and clear stuff up a bit now. 51 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: In that medical history episode, I talked about Greek philosophers 52 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 1: who observed the effects of static electricity, what we call 53 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: static electricity, where you build up an electric charge and 54 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: it can be discharged when you come into contact with 55 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: something else, and about how Benjamin Franklin proved that this 56 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:29,400 Speaker 1: was the same stuff as was found in lightning. But 57 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,359 Speaker 1: I mostly stayed away from the history of detecting and 58 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:36,600 Speaker 1: measuring electrical phenomena and the terminology that we associate with it. 59 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 1: So that's really what this episode will end up being about. 60 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: And in that previous episode, I mentioned that Benjamin Franklin 61 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:46,840 Speaker 1: thought of electricity as a sort of fluid. He was 62 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,400 Speaker 1: not alone in this. It was a prevalent thought at 63 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: the time, and that's probably why he described the movement 64 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: of electricity as current. But the way Franklin described current 65 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: and the way we tiply talk about electricity has caused 66 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:07,200 Speaker 1: confusion for some folks like me. So I'll explain. Imagine 67 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: you have two pools of water and they're connected by 68 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: a hose. Now imagine that the ground is perfectly level 69 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,680 Speaker 1: between these two pools of water. You would expect the 70 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: water in the hose to be pretty much in a 71 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:23,160 Speaker 1: state of equilibrium. It would be still. But imagine one 72 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:27,360 Speaker 1: pool is at a slightly higher elevation than the other. Well, 73 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 1: then you would expect water to follow the force of 74 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,240 Speaker 1: gravity and flow down through the hose into the other pool. 75 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:36,720 Speaker 1: You would have a current, and you could think of 76 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:40,800 Speaker 1: the pool at the higher elevation as being positive, at 77 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 1: least in terms of elevation. So in that context, you'd 78 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,720 Speaker 1: say that a current of water is flowing from positive 79 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: to negative through the hose. Now I'm oversimplifying a bit, 80 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: but that's kind of what Franklin was thinking. When it 81 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:59,600 Speaker 1: comes to the fluid. He observed with electricity. He described 82 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: current as moving from positive to negative, and this has 83 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: more to do with the electrostatic experiments he was doing 84 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:10,679 Speaker 1: and whether or not the surface that he was rubbing with, 85 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,680 Speaker 1: for for example, was the positive or whether it was 86 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: the negative. You also have to remember that Franklin made 87 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:22,039 Speaker 1: his observations more than a century before we had discovered 88 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,400 Speaker 1: that electrons are even a thing that exists. I have 89 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,880 Speaker 1: often joked that Franklin really messed us all up with 90 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: his description of current going from positive to negative, but 91 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:36,080 Speaker 1: turns out that's not really true. Now explain why that 92 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: is in just a moment. Now, Later on after Benjamin 93 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: Franklin's time, we would learn more about electricity and we 94 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: began to learn about electric charges and electric potential. We 95 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,719 Speaker 1: began to understand that you can have different magnitudes of 96 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:54,360 Speaker 1: electric charge and it could be negative, it could be positive, 97 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:57,719 Speaker 1: and that you can create a connection between different things 98 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: with different electric charges and observe of a flow of 99 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:05,239 Speaker 1: electric charge or an electric current. This was all stuff 100 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: that we learned over time. And let's think back on 101 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: our two pools connected by a hose analogy. If we 102 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,719 Speaker 1: had two pools that were on level ground and we 103 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 1: equated that with a conductive pathway in an electrical circuit. 104 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: Let's just say it's a it's a copper wire connecting 105 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: two terminals. Then we would describe that wires having equal 106 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:29,919 Speaker 1: amounts of potential on either side. There's not a positive 107 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,840 Speaker 1: and a negative terminal, they're both neutral, and in other words, 108 00:06:32,839 --> 00:06:35,960 Speaker 1: there's no difference in electrical potential. There's no difference in 109 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:39,799 Speaker 1: potential energy, there's no flow of electrical charge, and thus 110 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: no electrical current. In the analogy in which we think 111 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:46,240 Speaker 1: of one pool being at a higher elevation than the other, 112 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:51,160 Speaker 1: we would describe the corresponding electrical system as the end 113 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,440 Speaker 1: of the wire representing the elevator pool, elevator pool having 114 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: a higher potential energy or just higher potential, and the 115 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:00,760 Speaker 1: lower end having a lower potential energy or lower potential, 116 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:03,800 Speaker 1: And we call this difference an electric potential between the 117 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: high and the low pools as the voltage. So the 118 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:11,160 Speaker 1: greater the difference between those two points in the analogy, 119 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,840 Speaker 1: the greater difference in an elevation would mean the greater 120 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 1: the voltage. So if you have one that is one 121 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 1: terminal that's extremely positively charged and one that's extremely negatively charged, 122 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 1: you have an extreme voltage. The difference between those two. 123 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: Sticking with the analogy of water, voltage is like water pressure. 124 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,440 Speaker 1: It's kind of how hard the electricity is being pushed 125 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: through the conductive connection between the different terminals. So if 126 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: the electric potential is of great magnitude, you get more pressure. 127 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 1: It's like a water hose shooting out water at high force, 128 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:54,120 Speaker 1: like a fire hose connected to a fire hydrant. If 129 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,400 Speaker 1: the electric potential isn't that great, if if the difference 130 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:01,280 Speaker 1: isn't that great, then the voltage is lower, and in 131 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: our analogy, the water pressure is lower, so water would 132 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:06,120 Speaker 1: come out and kind of a lazy arc as opposed 133 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:10,280 Speaker 1: to blasting out at full force. And it helps if 134 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: we remember that opposite charges attract each other and like 135 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: charges repel each other. So if there's a big difference 136 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 1: in electrical potential between two connected points, the like charges 137 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: are going to want to rush over to the opposite 138 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,120 Speaker 1: charges and get the heck away from the other like charges. 139 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: If you listen to my previous episode, then you heard 140 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 1: me talk about Alessandro Volta, the man who invented the 141 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,920 Speaker 1: voltaic pile, which was a precursor to the modern battery. 142 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: He did that back in eighteen hundred. It's from his 143 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:48,440 Speaker 1: name that we get volts and voltage, and a volt 144 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:51,559 Speaker 1: is a unit of measurement to describe the difference in 145 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:56,000 Speaker 1: electric potential between two points. I'll get back to describing 146 00:08:56,040 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 1: exactly how we define volts in a second, because unfortunately 147 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 1: that definition depends upon us knowing what some of this 148 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 1: other stuff is. First. It doesn't do you much good 149 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: to give a definition if you realize that all the 150 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:12,880 Speaker 1: other terms in that definition are undefined. Okay, So if 151 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: we assume voltage is pressure water amps, Now, amps are 152 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: a measure of current, or how much electrical charge is 153 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:25,320 Speaker 1: flowing through a specific point in a circuit per unit 154 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:28,400 Speaker 1: of time. So let's go back to the water analogy 155 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:31,480 Speaker 1: and change things up a bit. Imagine that we have 156 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:34,720 Speaker 1: those sets of pools we've been talking about. We have 157 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:37,679 Speaker 1: one pool at a higher elevation and one pool at 158 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,679 Speaker 1: a lower elevation. Now let's say that we copy that. 159 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:42,840 Speaker 1: So now we've got to we've got two pools at 160 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 1: high elevation, two pools at low elevation. With one of 161 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:50,040 Speaker 1: the high low sets, we connect the two pools with 162 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:53,640 Speaker 1: an ordinary garden hose, and with the other set, we 163 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:56,559 Speaker 1: connect the two with a concrete tube with a much 164 00:09:56,600 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: greater diameter than the garden hose, more water will be 165 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:04,160 Speaker 1: able to flow through a given point, Let's say it's 166 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:07,880 Speaker 1: the midpoint of the concrete tube per unit of time 167 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:11,240 Speaker 1: than through the midpoint of the garden hose in that 168 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:15,720 Speaker 1: same unit of time. The concrete tube has a greater capacity, 169 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:18,320 Speaker 1: The tube can hold more volume, and thus we get 170 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: more water coming out per unit of time than we 171 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,320 Speaker 1: would observe with the hose. Well, with electrical circuits, we 172 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: described the same idea with amps. Amps tell us how 173 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:30,280 Speaker 1: much electrical charge passes a given point in a circuit 174 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: per unit of time. So voltage is the pressure and 175 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:37,120 Speaker 1: amps or current is the amount of charge. Multiply those 176 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:41,240 Speaker 1: two together and you get what's now. Moving back to Franklin, 177 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:44,440 Speaker 1: we'll get back to Watson a second. He thought of 178 00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:47,880 Speaker 1: electricity as a positive flow, that the direction of current 179 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,439 Speaker 1: was in the direction of an electrical field, and unfortunately 180 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:55,600 Speaker 1: we would later learn that it's the negatively charged electrons, 181 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:59,840 Speaker 1: not the positively charged protons, that really move around in 182 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:04,600 Speaker 1: a typical electric circuit. So if we follow the conventional 183 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:08,800 Speaker 1: explanation of current. The flow of current is in the 184 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,040 Speaker 1: opposite direction of the flow of electrons. In a circuit 185 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:15,680 Speaker 1: with a battery, we would see movement described as the 186 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: electrons going from the negative terminal of the battery through 187 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: a circuit doing whatever work was part of that circuit, 188 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:26,920 Speaker 1: like lighting a lamp or something before journeying to the 189 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:30,360 Speaker 1: positive terminal of the battery. But we would describe the 190 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:33,719 Speaker 1: current in that circuit as traveling from the positive end 191 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:36,840 Speaker 1: of the battery through the circuit until it got to 192 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 1: the negative end. But what's more important here is not 193 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,559 Speaker 1: the carrier of the electric charge. It's the concept of 194 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 1: electrical charge itself, not the movement of electrons, which again 195 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: are just the carriers. Electricity ultimately is about the flow 196 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:57,480 Speaker 1: of electric charge, positive or negative. So in our day 197 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:00,200 Speaker 1: to day use of electricity, we're talking about of the 198 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:03,959 Speaker 1: type where electrons flow through circuits, so we typically are 199 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:07,679 Speaker 1: looking at negatively charged particles moving in a conductive pathway, 200 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:11,199 Speaker 1: pushing that negative charge in the opposite direction of what 201 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:16,080 Speaker 1: we would typically call the current. But electricity isn't the 202 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:20,080 Speaker 1: movement of electrons, even though that's often how it is simplified. 203 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:23,760 Speaker 1: It's really the movement of the charge itself we need 204 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:26,800 Speaker 1: to be concerned with. And if you have a flow 205 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,840 Speaker 1: of protons, you would still have a flow of charge, 206 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:33,600 Speaker 1: and thus you would still have electricity. So a particle accelerator, 207 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:38,280 Speaker 1: for example, the accelerates a beam of protons is creating 208 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:41,439 Speaker 1: a flow of electricity. Electrons are not even involved in that. 209 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,720 Speaker 1: It's the movement of positively charged particles. You're getting a 210 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:48,720 Speaker 1: movement of a positive charge that is technically electricity. So 211 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:51,720 Speaker 1: again we need to kind of divorce ourselves from the 212 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: idea of electrons and think more about electrical charge. The 213 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,679 Speaker 1: electrons happen to be the carriers of that, but that's 214 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:03,520 Speaker 1: as far as their importance is concerned from this perspective. 215 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:06,800 Speaker 1: They get important again once we start talking about quantum effects, 216 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 1: but that's a discussion for a different time. So I 217 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:13,800 Speaker 1: say all this in order to exonerate Benjamin Franklin a 218 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,040 Speaker 1: little bit. I give him a hard time, but it's 219 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:19,920 Speaker 1: largely because the way we harness electricity for most of 220 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:22,800 Speaker 1: the stuff we do means that we have an apparent 221 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: contradiction in the sense of the flow of electrons and 222 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 1: the flow of current. But to be fair, our lay 223 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:32,040 Speaker 1: understanding of electricity is based on a lot of misconceptions. 224 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: In general, we focus a bit too much on those 225 00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: carrier particles and not the larger concept of electric charge. 226 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,480 Speaker 1: Another misconception has to do with the wires in a circuit. 227 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 1: I'll explain more after we take a short break. Okay, 228 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:58,199 Speaker 1: so let's get another misconception out of the way. Many 229 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:02,600 Speaker 1: people take that analogy of water pipes or hoses or 230 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:06,880 Speaker 1: tubes as being a literal one to one with electricity, 231 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 1: and thus the wires in a circuit they think of 232 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:14,240 Speaker 1: as empty conduits through which electrons can travel like. They're 233 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:17,560 Speaker 1: imagining the wires as being these hollow tubes, and electrons 234 00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:20,440 Speaker 1: are just shooting down the tubes. They're coming out of 235 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 1: the battery or out of the wall if you have 236 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,640 Speaker 1: something plugged in, shooting down the tube and getting to 237 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: the other end. But if we think about that for 238 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:32,120 Speaker 1: even a moment, we realize that cannot possibly be true, 239 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:35,240 Speaker 1: because the wires themselves are made up of atoms, and 240 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: atoms have electrons. So it's more like a tube or 241 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:42,720 Speaker 1: a hose or whatever that is already packed with water 242 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:45,720 Speaker 1: before you connected to the two pools. And even that 243 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: is not a perfect analogy. So let's talk about conductivity. 244 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: Some types of atoms have electrons in their outer energy 245 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:58,000 Speaker 1: levels that are more lucy goosey. If you have a 246 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: single copper atom, then you've got a nucleus that contains 247 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:05,920 Speaker 1: twenty nine protons and thirty five neutrons. Now we're talking 248 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,800 Speaker 1: about a basic neutral copper atom, meaning the positive and 249 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: negative charges cancel each other out. So we have twenty 250 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:17,400 Speaker 1: nine electrons paired up with that nucleus that has twenty 251 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:22,360 Speaker 1: nine protons. Electrons orbit the nucleus, but not in the 252 00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:26,640 Speaker 1: same way that planets orbit stars or moons orbit planets. 253 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:31,680 Speaker 1: The electrons inhabit various orbitals, which in turn are in 254 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:35,000 Speaker 1: what we would call subshells, which are in shells around 255 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,040 Speaker 1: the nucleus. Now I'm not going to dive into all 256 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:38,840 Speaker 1: of that, because I'm sure most of you have a 257 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: general handle on it. But the twenty nine electrons and 258 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: copper add up to a point where one electron is 259 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:49,840 Speaker 1: left orbiting the outermost shell. There's no room for that 260 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:53,040 Speaker 1: last electron in any of the lower shells closer to 261 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:57,120 Speaker 1: the nucleus, so this electron is pushed out to the 262 00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: next lowest energy shell, and it's they're all by its lonesome. 263 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:06,040 Speaker 1: That means that electron is easier to push around than 264 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: the ones that are locked in packed closer to the nucleus. 265 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:14,760 Speaker 1: So when you lump a bunch of copper atoms together, 266 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,320 Speaker 1: like that was just one copper atom, right, If we 267 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:20,520 Speaker 1: put a bunch of copper atoms together and we've got 268 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:23,880 Speaker 1: something like a copper wire that's made up of trillions 269 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:26,760 Speaker 1: of these atoms, you end up with a mass of 270 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 1: copper atoms that all have these single free electrons, and 271 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: you can almost think of those electrons as moving around 272 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,760 Speaker 1: the mass of copper atoms as opposed to being tied 273 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:41,920 Speaker 1: down to a single copper nucleus. If you then connect 274 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 1: the wire into a circuit in which you have a 275 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:48,320 Speaker 1: battery or some sort of generator or something, that battery 276 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:51,720 Speaker 1: or generator acts as a pump that can push those 277 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:56,360 Speaker 1: free electrons around. The negative terminal has a charge that 278 00:16:56,400 --> 00:17:01,360 Speaker 1: pushes against those electrons because remember like charge repels like, 279 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:06,920 Speaker 1: so each of those electrons has its own negative charge 280 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,879 Speaker 1: and pushes further down the path of the circuit. And 281 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:12,480 Speaker 1: since since the other end of the battery has a 282 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:17,440 Speaker 1: positive terminal, the negative charges get attracted to the positive side. 283 00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:21,280 Speaker 1: It's not that electrons are shooting out of a battery 284 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:24,840 Speaker 1: down a pipe, doing some work, and then going into 285 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:27,480 Speaker 1: the other end of the battery. Is that the charge 286 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:31,199 Speaker 1: of the battery is pushing through this pathway and the 287 00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:36,040 Speaker 1: electrons carry that charge. Likewise, the electrons are not moving 288 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,439 Speaker 1: at the speed of light. I know I've been guilty 289 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:42,159 Speaker 1: of saying that before too, but that's not correct. The 290 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:45,280 Speaker 1: electrons move much more slowly than the speed of light. 291 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:48,640 Speaker 1: You could even say the charge moves more slowly than that. 292 00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:52,200 Speaker 1: But within the circuit, the charge is moving throughout all 293 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:56,400 Speaker 1: parts of the circuit at the same time. It's not 294 00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,560 Speaker 1: like one electron moves and then the next one and 295 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:02,800 Speaker 1: then the next one. It's like they're all moving together 296 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:06,000 Speaker 1: in in lock step. And so you have this entire 297 00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:08,359 Speaker 1: circuit that all goes into motion at the same time. 298 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:14,320 Speaker 1: And to us that means that we see practically instantaneous results. 299 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:16,800 Speaker 1: So if you flip on a light switch to an 300 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:21,320 Speaker 1: incandescent lamp, the light comes on immediately, it doesn't delay. 301 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,480 Speaker 1: That's why. It's because all of those electrons in the 302 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,040 Speaker 1: circuit are moving at the same time, so the effect 303 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 1: is that it's moving at the speed of light. But 304 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,359 Speaker 1: in reality, what's actually happening is the electrons as a 305 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:38,119 Speaker 1: whole in this circuit are all moving together. So a 306 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 1: battery connected to a circuit is not really a source 307 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:44,560 Speaker 1: of electrons. It's a source of energy. It's providing the 308 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:48,800 Speaker 1: energy or the pressure to move that charge through the circuit. 309 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 1: It's the source of voltage. An electrochemical reaction in the 310 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:57,200 Speaker 1: battery acts as an internal circuit to create this voltage, 311 00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:00,560 Speaker 1: which manifests as a difference in electrical potential shold between 312 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:04,280 Speaker 1: the positive and the negative terminals on the battery. Connecting 313 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 1: that battery to a circuit is what gives the energy 314 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:11,359 Speaker 1: necessary to move this charge through the circuit and to 315 00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:13,920 Speaker 1: do whatever work it is you need to do along 316 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:16,840 Speaker 1: the way, such as lighting up that light bulb. Within 317 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,959 Speaker 1: a battery, you've got an exothermic reaction that is working 318 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:24,880 Speaker 1: against the electric field. So it's kind of like pushing 319 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,440 Speaker 1: a boulder uphill. The force of gravity in that case 320 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:31,159 Speaker 1: would be working against you and you have to overcome it. 321 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:35,120 Speaker 1: You have to exert effort to work against the force 322 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 1: of gravity to push the boulder up the hill. A 323 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:41,760 Speaker 1: battery likewise is exerting effort in the form of this 324 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: exothermic reaction. The external circuit, that is, the larger circuit 325 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:50,760 Speaker 1: that you connect to the battery, is following the natural 326 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:55,080 Speaker 1: energy field. It isn't working uphill. It's got a high 327 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:57,879 Speaker 1: potential terminal and a low potential terminal, and the current 328 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,920 Speaker 1: flows according to the direct and of high to low 329 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,560 Speaker 1: as Franklin described, The actual electrons are going in the 330 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:08,840 Speaker 1: opposite direction. As the charge moves through the circuit, it 331 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: encounters energy transforming devices. These would be things like light bulbs, 332 00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: heating elements, pretty much, you know, anything that you would 333 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,800 Speaker 1: connect to a circuit. At those points, some of the 334 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:24,640 Speaker 1: electrical potential energy of the charge gets transformed into some 335 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:27,879 Speaker 1: other form of energy, light, heat, whatever. The loss of 336 00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:30,720 Speaker 1: electrical potential in a circuit after passing through one of 337 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: these elements is often called a voltage drop. Now going 338 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,399 Speaker 1: to the water analogy again, imagine that you have a 339 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,920 Speaker 1: pool of water. You have a ramp set up above 340 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: that pool of water, like maybe it's like a water slide, 341 00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:48,960 Speaker 1: and the water slide is not turned on, uh, and 342 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:51,560 Speaker 1: it's smacked aub in the middle of the pool. You're 343 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 1: also in the middle of the pool, and you grab 344 00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:56,160 Speaker 1: a bucket and you fill it up with water from 345 00:20:56,240 --> 00:20:59,560 Speaker 1: the pool. You lift the bucket up over your head 346 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:01,960 Speaker 1: to the top of the slide, and you tip the 347 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:05,640 Speaker 1: bucket out so that the water hits the slide, goes 348 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:09,640 Speaker 1: down the slide off the other end back into the pool. Well, 349 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:13,120 Speaker 1: you've just taken water from an area of low potential 350 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,560 Speaker 1: energy in this case, kinetic energy, and you moved it 351 00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: using work to an area of high potential energy. The 352 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:23,520 Speaker 1: water then flows down the ramp till it gets the end. 353 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,439 Speaker 1: And maybe you even put a water wheel at the 354 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:29,560 Speaker 1: base of this slide, so when the water hits the 355 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:34,359 Speaker 1: water wheel, it actually provides the work necessary to turn 356 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:38,959 Speaker 1: the wheel and you get the wheel turning. You have 357 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:44,280 Speaker 1: this display of mechanical energy from the water. So that's 358 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: kind of what you would see with a battery in 359 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:52,960 Speaker 1: a circuit. In this example, you are fulfilling the same 360 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:57,720 Speaker 1: purpose of a battery. You are lifting some water using 361 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:00,520 Speaker 1: work from an area of low potential to an area 362 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:04,120 Speaker 1: of high potential. The battery is doing this but with 363 00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:10,000 Speaker 1: electrical potential, not with you know, physical stuff. Okay, now 364 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:13,280 Speaker 1: it's time to define an actual vault. I alluded to 365 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:17,520 Speaker 1: this in the first segment of this podcast. We've got voltage, 366 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 1: which is this difference in electrical potential between two points. 367 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: And we understand that creating a conductive path between an 368 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,160 Speaker 1: area of high electrical potential and one of low electrical 369 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:31,280 Speaker 1: potential allows for the flow of current. So how do 370 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:34,639 Speaker 1: we define a vault. Well, there's actually a couple of ways. 371 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:38,439 Speaker 1: One is to say that one volt is equivalent to 372 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,719 Speaker 1: the energy consumption of one jewel per electric charge of 373 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:47,080 Speaker 1: one coolomb. But that just raises more questions, doesn't it. 374 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,320 Speaker 1: The dictionary definition of a jewel is a unit of 375 00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,520 Speaker 1: work or energy equal to the work done by a 376 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:57,440 Speaker 1: force of one Newton acting through a distance of one meter, 377 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,679 Speaker 1: and a Newton is a unit of force. One Newton 378 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:03,680 Speaker 1: is the force required to impart an acceleration of one 379 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:06,680 Speaker 1: meter per second per second to a mass of one 380 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 1: kim okay, So a jewel is the energy required to 381 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,399 Speaker 1: produce a Newton's worth of force through a distance of 382 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: one meter. What's a coulomb. A coulomb is a unit 383 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,439 Speaker 1: of electrical charge equal to the quantity of a current 384 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:26,240 Speaker 1: of one ampier in one second. It's named after Charles 385 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: Augustine de Coulomb, who in the late seventeen hundreds developed 386 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:34,920 Speaker 1: a description of the force that interacts between electrical charges. 387 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: He had determined that like charges repel each other and 388 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,160 Speaker 1: that opposite charges attract each other, and his work led 389 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:44,720 Speaker 1: to further discoveries that the force of this repulsion or 390 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:49,200 Speaker 1: attraction is proportional to the products of the electrical charges 391 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 1: and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between 392 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: those two charges. And this is what we now call 393 00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:01,040 Speaker 1: Coulomb's law and another way to define volt That was 394 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,919 Speaker 1: one way, but here's the other one. It's equivalent to 395 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:09,120 Speaker 1: one amp of current times the resistance of one ohm. 396 00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:11,719 Speaker 1: And oh my goodness, looks like we're gonna have yet 397 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:13,960 Speaker 1: another thing to talk about here. And while you might 398 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:17,359 Speaker 1: hear that resistance is useless, I'm here to tell you 399 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,560 Speaker 1: it's pretty important in the case of circuitry. So I 400 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: talked about how copper is a good conductor because of 401 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,080 Speaker 1: those free electrons, right well, the single electrons in the 402 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,840 Speaker 1: outermost energy shell around a copper nucleus make copper a 403 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,320 Speaker 1: great conductor of electricity. We describe this quality of copper 404 00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:39,640 Speaker 1: as conductance, or the ease with which electrical current may 405 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 1: pass through that substance. The opposite quality is called electrical resistance, 406 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:49,240 Speaker 1: the opposition of a material to the flow of current 407 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,040 Speaker 1: through it, And typically we talk about that with materials 408 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:57,520 Speaker 1: that have fewer or no free electrons, making it more 409 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:02,040 Speaker 1: difficult for electricity to pass through. Even copper has some 410 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,760 Speaker 1: electrical resistance. It's not a perfect conductor, at least not 411 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:11,160 Speaker 1: under conditions you and I would typically experience. Resistance is 412 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:15,280 Speaker 1: kind of like the concept of friction, right. We know 413 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,080 Speaker 1: that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. 414 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:22,119 Speaker 1: So if you were to roll a ball across a 415 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:26,480 Speaker 1: perfectly level surface, and both the ball and that surface 416 00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:30,119 Speaker 1: were made of some magical material that ignored friction, there's 417 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,640 Speaker 1: no friction in this system, then that ball would roll 418 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:38,439 Speaker 1: forever unless it ran into something. But friction means that 419 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,680 Speaker 1: some of the energy of that rolling ball in a 420 00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,440 Speaker 1: normal setting where we're using you know, a real ball 421 00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:49,159 Speaker 1: and a real level surface, friction means that some of 422 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: that energy gets converted into heat, and that means that 423 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,760 Speaker 1: there's less energy for that ball to continue to roll, 424 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:59,280 Speaker 1: and eventually the ball will slow down and stop rolling. 425 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:04,320 Speaker 1: Electrical resistance is kind of similar to that typically we 426 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:08,720 Speaker 1: see energy and electrical circuits convert into other forms like heat, 427 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,160 Speaker 1: which dissipate into the environment at large. Now I mentioned 428 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,280 Speaker 1: that one volt is equal to one amp of current 429 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:21,000 Speaker 1: running through one ohm of resistance. Resistance then is the 430 00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: ratio of voltage across whatever material we're talking about, divided 431 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:30,240 Speaker 1: by the current going through that material. So resistance is 432 00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:34,520 Speaker 1: voltage divided by current, and conductance is the current running 433 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,199 Speaker 1: through an object divided by the voltage across it, So 434 00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:41,720 Speaker 1: it's the reciprocal of resistance. Now we measure resistance in 435 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,480 Speaker 1: oms and ohm is the amount of electrical resistance between 436 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,840 Speaker 1: two points on a conductor when there's a constant potential 437 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 1: difference of one volt applied to those points, producing one 438 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,359 Speaker 1: current or one amp here of current. I should say 439 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: electrical resistance depends on a lot of stuff. Depends upon 440 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,600 Speaker 1: the atoms of the material itself, So the resistance of 441 00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,200 Speaker 1: a copper wire will be different than the resistance of 442 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,679 Speaker 1: say a gold wire that's of the same thickness or gauge. 443 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,040 Speaker 1: It also depends upon the thickness or gauge of a wire, 444 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:18,840 Speaker 1: so a thicker copper cable will have less resistance than 445 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:23,240 Speaker 1: a thin copper wire. And it depends upon stuff like temperature. 446 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,200 Speaker 1: If you were to super cool some conductors, like get 447 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,280 Speaker 1: it near absolute zero, they would then have them perform 448 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,919 Speaker 1: as super conductors, which is material that can conduct current 449 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,440 Speaker 1: with no conversion into other types of energy like heat. 450 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: You get no loss. In other words, likewise, there are 451 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:45,240 Speaker 1: some materials that have tightly packed electrons that resist this 452 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,120 Speaker 1: flow of current. I mentioned those earlier. We would call 453 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:54,080 Speaker 1: these insulators. So materials that insulate don't allow for the 454 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:59,760 Speaker 1: conduct conductivity of electricity or they severely restricted. Alright, so 455 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,760 Speaker 1: quick rundown voltage is akin to pressure. It's the difference 456 00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 1: in electrical potential between two points. Amperage is a measurement 457 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:11,000 Speaker 1: of current and explains how much charge passes a given 458 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,159 Speaker 1: point in a circuit within a unit of time. Ohms 459 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:17,680 Speaker 1: are a measure of resistance, or how much material resists 460 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:21,320 Speaker 1: the flow of charge through it. Now to define a what, 461 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,439 Speaker 1: so a what is the amount of electrical work performed 462 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:29,359 Speaker 1: when one ampere of current flows across one volt of 463 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: electrical potential difference? So what is a unit of power? 464 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: And this is where I find another stumbling block for myself, 465 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:42,320 Speaker 1: because in language we often swap out words that have 466 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:47,640 Speaker 1: similar meanings in other contexts, but very specific meanings in physics, 467 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:51,200 Speaker 1: and it causes confusion for people like me. So words 468 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:55,320 Speaker 1: like work, energy, power, and force they get thrown around 469 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:58,040 Speaker 1: a lot, and it's easy to forget what they all 470 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:02,240 Speaker 1: mean within the context of physics, and they mean different things. 471 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,680 Speaker 1: A force is something that causes an object to change 472 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:11,120 Speaker 1: its velocity in some way. Velocity is a vector quantity 473 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,360 Speaker 1: that means it has both a magnitude and a direction. 474 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,880 Speaker 1: So in our example of rolling a ball on a 475 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,160 Speaker 1: flat surface, that ball would tend to stay in motion 476 00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,520 Speaker 1: at a constant speed and remain on a straight path 477 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,600 Speaker 1: on its own unless some other force were to act 478 00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: upon that ball and either speed it up or slow 479 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 1: it down, or make it change its direction, or some 480 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:41,080 Speaker 1: combination of these things. That would be an external force 481 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:45,360 Speaker 1: acting upon this system. You can think of energy as 482 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:48,920 Speaker 1: the capacity for doing work, and it comes in lots 483 00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: of different forms. A moving object has kinetic energy. For example, 484 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:58,240 Speaker 1: work is a type of energy, specifically the amount of 485 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 1: energy used to apply some force on some object over 486 00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:07,160 Speaker 1: some distance. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the jewel is 487 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:09,760 Speaker 1: a unit of energy defined as being equal to the 488 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,160 Speaker 1: work done by a force of one newton across one 489 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 1: meter in the direction of action of that force. We 490 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,760 Speaker 1: would describe the energy needed to lift a kilogram and 491 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:23,760 Speaker 1: move it a meter in a specific direction as work. 492 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,240 Speaker 1: Power is a description of the amount of energy used 493 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: per unit of time. So if you expend twelve jewels 494 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: of energy to do some sort of work, Let's say 495 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:38,520 Speaker 1: it's to to move a wheelbarrow a few feet. Uh, 496 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,600 Speaker 1: let's say that's that's how much energy you spent total 497 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,800 Speaker 1: moving that wheelbarrow. This is a totally hypothetical example. So 498 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:48,760 Speaker 1: you spent twelve jewels moving it. If you expended that 499 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 1: energy those twelve jewels over the course of three seconds, 500 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:57,480 Speaker 1: your average output of power would be for watts. As 501 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:01,320 Speaker 1: you take the twelve jewels that you took to actually 502 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,160 Speaker 1: do this thing and the three seconds the amount of 503 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:06,360 Speaker 1: time it took you to do it, and you divide 504 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:08,360 Speaker 1: the twelve by the three, that's where you get the 505 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:12,800 Speaker 1: four watts. When we come back, I'll talk a little 506 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:16,400 Speaker 1: bit more about volts, amps, watts and how to read 507 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:20,360 Speaker 1: your power bill. But first let's take another quick break. 508 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,160 Speaker 1: I mentioned that one what is the same as one 509 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:35,200 Speaker 1: jewel of energy expended in one second. So what does 510 00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:37,560 Speaker 1: it mean if your power bill is broken down by 511 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:42,640 Speaker 1: kill a watt hours. Well, it's kind of simple, and 512 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 1: that a kill a watt hour is what it sounds like. 513 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,120 Speaker 1: It's the equivalent to one kill a watt of power 514 00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:52,320 Speaker 1: sustained over the course of an hour of time. Since 515 00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:55,440 Speaker 1: and this is a unit of energy, right, Since since 516 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,560 Speaker 1: one what is equivalent to a jewel per second? A 517 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,880 Speaker 1: kill a lot hour is equal to three point six 518 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 1: mega jewels. Wait, how did I get that number? Well, 519 00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:10,440 Speaker 1: jewel per two. Right, there are sixty seconds in a 520 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,800 Speaker 1: minute and sixty minutes in an hour, so we multiply 521 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: sixty by sixty to get us three thousand, six hundred 522 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,000 Speaker 1: that's how many seconds there are in an hour. Then 523 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:22,960 Speaker 1: we multiply that by one thousand because we have one 524 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,240 Speaker 1: thousand watts because it's at kill a lot, So one 525 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 1: thousand watts times three thousand, six hundred seconds we get 526 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:33,080 Speaker 1: three point six million. And remember a what is equivalent 527 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,080 Speaker 1: to one jewel per second? That means a jewel is 528 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:39,360 Speaker 1: equal to what's times seconds, So one thousand watts per 529 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,760 Speaker 1: hour three pint six mega jewels are equal. We use 530 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:44,760 Speaker 1: kill a wat hours to describe the amount of energy 531 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 1: used to do work. So let's say you've got an 532 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:51,120 Speaker 1: appliance at home that requires a kill a lot in 533 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,360 Speaker 1: order for it to do its work. So it's gonna 534 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,240 Speaker 1: have a kill a lot of work in order to 535 00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,880 Speaker 1: do whatever it's doing. Let's say it's an air conditioner. 536 00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,680 Speaker 1: You gotta kill a what air conditioner. If you run 537 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:05,280 Speaker 1: that appliance for one hour, it consumes one kilowatt hour 538 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:08,320 Speaker 1: worth of energy to do that work. If you have 539 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:12,800 Speaker 1: a ten what device plugged in, it would take that 540 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:16,880 Speaker 1: device one hundred hours for it to use one kilowatt 541 00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:20,760 Speaker 1: hour of energy. Power companies usually sell electrical energy in 542 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,360 Speaker 1: kilowatt hours, and it gets more confusing than that. Some 543 00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 1: regions have varying prices on kilowatt hours. Sometimes that price 544 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 1: depends upon the time of day or the rate of consumption. 545 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:33,960 Speaker 1: So we're just going to leave it at that. But 546 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 1: that's why we're talking about kilowatt hours as units, and 547 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,280 Speaker 1: you're really thinking about this is the amount of energy 548 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,480 Speaker 1: that is representative of doing a killer what worth of 549 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:49,680 Speaker 1: work within an hour. I haven't talked about direct current 550 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,000 Speaker 1: and alternating current yet, so I guess I should do that. 551 00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:55,680 Speaker 1: A bit direct current is what you would find in 552 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,600 Speaker 1: a circuit connected to a battery. The direction of current 553 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,440 Speaker 1: is always going to stay the same because the positive 554 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:05,120 Speaker 1: and negative terminals on the battery are fixed. They can't swamp. 555 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:09,319 Speaker 1: The positive terminal is always positive. The negative terminal is 556 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,399 Speaker 1: always a drag guy. He's just always saying bad things 557 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:18,120 Speaker 1: about everybody. Alternating current switches the terminals in a circuit, 558 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,960 Speaker 1: and thus the direction of current switches back and forth, 559 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:25,600 Speaker 1: and it does this in cycles per second. So in 560 00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:29,000 Speaker 1: Europe the standard is fifty times per second fifty cycles. 561 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 1: In the United States it's sixty cycles per second. The 562 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:38,960 Speaker 1: reason we use alternating current is largely because of how 563 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,560 Speaker 1: it's pretty easy to adjust voltages for the purposes of 564 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:48,320 Speaker 1: power distribution. This is where things like resistance and voltage 565 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: and ambridge really become important. So let's say you've got 566 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,360 Speaker 1: a power plant and that power plant produces one million 567 00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:59,399 Speaker 1: watts of power. But then you have to distribute that 568 00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:01,960 Speaker 1: power to the people who need it and the places 569 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,800 Speaker 1: that need it. So how do you do that. Well, 570 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:09,040 Speaker 1: you could send one million amps at an electrical potential 571 00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:13,279 Speaker 1: difference of one volt, because remember the watts are it's 572 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:17,400 Speaker 1: really volts times amps. So if you have a million amps, 573 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:21,040 Speaker 1: then your voltage has to be one or you could 574 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:26,880 Speaker 1: send one amp very low current across an electrical potential 575 00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:30,759 Speaker 1: difference of a million volts. One amp would only need 576 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,080 Speaker 1: a very thin wire. It doesn't need much wire at 577 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:36,440 Speaker 1: all and would have very little energy loss due to heat. 578 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:41,040 Speaker 1: A million amps would need an incredibly thick cable to 579 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:43,919 Speaker 1: avoid losing too much energy to resistance or burning through 580 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,799 Speaker 1: the wire entirely. And it would be very tricky to 581 00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:49,839 Speaker 1: come up with a method that works for both distributing 582 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:55,400 Speaker 1: electricity across vast distances and also making use of that 583 00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:58,560 Speaker 1: electricity once it gets to the home. Like once you 584 00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,520 Speaker 1: get to the home, you don't probably want a super 585 00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:04,879 Speaker 1: high current in your home. It would burn out all 586 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:09,120 Speaker 1: of your electrical appliances and probably kill you. Uh. You 587 00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:13,880 Speaker 1: also don't want super low current for like super super 588 00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:16,480 Speaker 1: low current, and you don't you know your voltage. You 589 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:20,160 Speaker 1: don't need super high voltage for the home. So how 590 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:24,560 Speaker 1: do you solve that problem? Well, direct current has issues 591 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:28,680 Speaker 1: with that. Alternating current, however, allows for the use of transformers, 592 00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:31,560 Speaker 1: which lets you step up or step down the voltage. 593 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,680 Speaker 1: Now I've talked about transformers in other episodes, so I'm 594 00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:37,839 Speaker 1: not going to go through all of that right now, 595 00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: but they are how a power company can increase or 596 00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:45,400 Speaker 1: decrease the voltage. They can increase the voltage for the 597 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:50,239 Speaker 1: purposes of transmission, where transmitting power at high voltage is 598 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:53,680 Speaker 1: more efficient less power loss. You can push it further 599 00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,200 Speaker 1: distances and then step it down when it comes time 600 00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:02,800 Speaker 1: to distribute that power to read and so you step 601 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,840 Speaker 1: it up for the purposes of transmission. It gets to 602 00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,000 Speaker 1: say a neighborhood, it goes to a different transformer that 603 00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:12,839 Speaker 1: steps the voltage back down a bit, and then that 604 00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:17,279 Speaker 1: transformers sends the power over to the households, where there's 605 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:21,240 Speaker 1: another step down to get it down to the standard 606 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:23,800 Speaker 1: in that house. So in the United States, that standard 607 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:27,880 Speaker 1: is one volts, all right, So really it's to make 608 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,479 Speaker 1: it more confusing, a pair of wires that combined offer 609 00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:32,719 Speaker 1: two hundred forty volts of power, but that's because of 610 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:37,760 Speaker 1: alternating current. Most homes have an electrical service that provides 611 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:41,480 Speaker 1: between a hundred to two hundred amps, though there are 612 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:43,839 Speaker 1: exceptions both on the low end and the high end. 613 00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:47,440 Speaker 1: There's more I could go into with direct current versus 614 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: alternating current, including obviously the current wars between Westinghouse and Edison. 615 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:55,680 Speaker 1: A lot of people say between Tesla and Edison, although 616 00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,600 Speaker 1: I think that's not entirely fair, uh, And I can 617 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,280 Speaker 1: also talk about the equations used to describe direct current 618 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:05,319 Speaker 1: versus alternating current. They are a bit different. But I'm 619 00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:06,880 Speaker 1: going to hold off on all of that for a 620 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:11,080 Speaker 1: future episode because otherwise this episode would run way too 621 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:14,040 Speaker 1: long for me to get into that. Something else I 622 00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:17,799 Speaker 1: did want to cover, however, was the difference between voltage 623 00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:21,960 Speaker 1: and amperage when it comes to safety risks. Now we've 624 00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:26,440 Speaker 1: established that these two factors are different. Voltage and ambridge 625 00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: described different things. Voltage again, is that pressure and ambridge 626 00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,320 Speaker 1: is the amount of charge passing through a given point 627 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,800 Speaker 1: in a given amount of time. But which is more dangerous? 628 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,560 Speaker 1: Which one do you need to be more aware of? Well, 629 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:43,279 Speaker 1: you've probably seen signs that say things like danger high 630 00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:46,279 Speaker 1: voltage when there's a fire at the disco or a 631 00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:49,200 Speaker 1: fire at the taco bell. Make sure you let me 632 00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:52,719 Speaker 1: know if you actually get that reference. It might just 633 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:54,960 Speaker 1: be making a joke for my own sake at that point. 634 00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:59,759 Speaker 1: But is voltage the really dangerous factor here. Well, it's 635 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:02,600 Speaker 1: a bit more complicated than that. Let's say you encounter 636 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,160 Speaker 1: a current running at high voltage but very low ambridge, 637 00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:09,560 Speaker 1: so there's a lot of pressure in the line, but 638 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:14,279 Speaker 1: not much electrical charge being moved through per second. That 639 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:18,920 Speaker 1: would be less dangerous than a current a high current 640 00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,799 Speaker 1: with a relatively low voltage, So a high ambridge low 641 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:26,760 Speaker 1: voltage would be more dangerous than a high voltage low ambridge, 642 00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,440 Speaker 1: And it doesn't take much amperage to do some damage 643 00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:33,560 Speaker 1: to us. When you get a zapp from an electrostatic charge, 644 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:37,200 Speaker 1: chances are the brief current would have measured in the 645 00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:41,319 Speaker 1: one to ten milla amp range, So a mill hamp 646 00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:45,720 Speaker 1: is one of an amp. Less than that you probably 647 00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:47,799 Speaker 1: would even feel it, and one to ten you would 648 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:51,440 Speaker 1: feel the little snap of an electric spark, but you 649 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:56,560 Speaker 1: wouldn't have any muscular convulsion at that strength of ambridge. 650 00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:59,879 Speaker 1: Electro Static charges are are very high voltage but very 651 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:04,799 Speaker 1: low ambridge. At about ten milli amps of current, you 652 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:09,160 Speaker 1: would experience muscular contractions. If you grabbed hold of a 653 00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:13,200 Speaker 1: wire that had ten or more milla amps of current 654 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:16,360 Speaker 1: running through that wire, you'd probably find yourself unable to 655 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,720 Speaker 1: let go. As you got shocked, your muscles would clamp down. 656 00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:24,200 Speaker 1: At about twenty milla amps of current, you'd find it 657 00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:28,200 Speaker 1: difficult to breathe. If the current were around one hundred 658 00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:32,040 Speaker 1: miller amps, it would probably be fatal as it would 659 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:34,799 Speaker 1: interfere with the operation of your heart. And it might 660 00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:38,839 Speaker 1: seem counterintuitive, but above two hundred milli amps you could 661 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:42,560 Speaker 1: actually survive the experience. So between one and two hundred 662 00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:46,680 Speaker 1: is the real danger spot. Your heart would go into 663 00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:52,440 Speaker 1: uncoordinated contractions and you would experience was called ventricular fibrillation, 664 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:56,760 Speaker 1: and that in fact can be fatal. Above two hundred 665 00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:59,680 Speaker 1: mill amps, your heart would actually seize up. It would 666 00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:02,320 Speaker 1: affect to really act as if it had been clamped down, 667 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:06,080 Speaker 1: so it wouldn't go into ventricular fibrillation, it wouldn't have 668 00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:10,800 Speaker 1: those uncontrolled contractions. It would just stop. And if someone 669 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:13,319 Speaker 1: were able to shut down the current going through you 670 00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:17,680 Speaker 1: fast enough, you could probably be revived. After that, you 671 00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:22,480 Speaker 1: could be given resuscitation and recover. You would probably have 672 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:25,319 Speaker 1: some nasty burn injuries to deal with, and you would 673 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:28,279 Speaker 1: probably also have some injuries and and damaged to your 674 00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:31,640 Speaker 1: internal organs. I have more to say about that in 675 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:35,360 Speaker 1: an episode about the electric chair, where we did it 676 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,680 Speaker 1: to people on purpose and continue to in some cases. 677 00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:43,520 Speaker 1: So that's the key there is that you really want 678 00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:46,960 Speaker 1: to be aware of the amperage and voltage is still important. 679 00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,040 Speaker 1: It's not like it's pleasant to get zapped by a 680 00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:55,480 Speaker 1: low amperage high voltage electric current, but it's not as 681 00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:59,080 Speaker 1: dangerous as the the amperage would be. And it's those 682 00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,719 Speaker 1: tiny little changes an amperage that will get you. So 683 00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:08,400 Speaker 1: be aware. Now I'll have to do more episodes to 684 00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:14,279 Speaker 1: talk about stuff like diodes, triodes, capacitors, and other components 685 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,520 Speaker 1: in circuitry. I've covered them in previous episodes, but I 686 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:21,520 Speaker 1: feel like taking this approach and really breaking it down. 687 00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:26,920 Speaker 1: Getting to the basics builds upon an understanding that we 688 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:31,239 Speaker 1: can then rest more complicated subjects upon. Right, you can 689 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:35,600 Speaker 1: start once you start understanding how these circuit pathways work 690 00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:39,720 Speaker 1: and what they do, and the behavior of electrical charge 691 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,799 Speaker 1: and why that's important. Then you can build on that 692 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:47,800 Speaker 1: and include things like quantum effects and why it gets 693 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:52,760 Speaker 1: difficult when you start getting into concepts like logic gates 694 00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:57,640 Speaker 1: and quantum tunneling. You can you can touch on those subjects. 695 00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:01,520 Speaker 1: You can also understand what a logic gate is, and 696 00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:04,960 Speaker 1: you can understand how to build circuits to do actual, 697 00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,400 Speaker 1: you know, tasks like how you can create a circuit 698 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,520 Speaker 1: to do calculations. But it all depends upon this basic 699 00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:16,720 Speaker 1: understanding of what is going on with these electrical charges. 700 00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:20,600 Speaker 1: And I find that if we start there we can 701 00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:24,160 Speaker 1: build a better understanding of everything else as we go along. 702 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:27,600 Speaker 1: But that's gonna be for a later episode. Our next 703 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,840 Speaker 1: one is going to be about using electricity to kill you. 704 00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:33,040 Speaker 1: I didn't. I did one on how people try to 705 00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,040 Speaker 1: use electricity to help you, and that continues to this 706 00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:40,560 Speaker 1: day to varying degrees of success in scientific rigor. And 707 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:44,200 Speaker 1: then we're gonna talk about the other extreme in our 708 00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:49,319 Speaker 1: next episode, a pleasant topic to say the least, and 709 00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:51,200 Speaker 1: then after that we'll cover all sorts of stuff. I 710 00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:53,480 Speaker 1: haven't decided what goes on after that one, but if 711 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:55,920 Speaker 1: you guys have suggestions for things I should cover in 712 00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:59,279 Speaker 1: future episodes of tech Stuff, you can reach out via 713 00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:03,520 Speaker 1: email The addresses tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, 714 00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:07,600 Speaker 1: or you can reach out via social media. It's tech 715 00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,799 Speaker 1: Stuff hs W both on Facebook and on Twitter, and 716 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,880 Speaker 1: go on over to our website. That's tech stuff podcast 717 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:17,600 Speaker 1: dot com. You'll find a link to the archive of 718 00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:20,520 Speaker 1: all of our past episodes. You also find a link 719 00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:23,560 Speaker 1: to our online store, where every purchase you make goes 720 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:26,239 Speaker 1: to help the show and we greatly appreciate it, and 721 00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:34,160 Speaker 1: I will talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff 722 00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:36,560 Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 723 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:39,520 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I 724 00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:42,880 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 725 00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:43,840 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.