WEBVTT - How Electricity Works 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:12.719 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.200 Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there. 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.319 Chuck's wearing his Last Chance garage hat, which means that 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.279 all is right with the world. You know, Chuck's not 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.680 wearing that hat. Who knows what's going on? There's I 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.479 thought a loss this thing. Yeah, yeah, I think I 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:35.280 vaguely remember that that freak was the Delta and everything, 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:37.880 and I was like, oh, here it is. It's on 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:42.640 my head in your back pocket with Bruce Springsteen. That's right. Uh, 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.000 how you doing great? Um? Chuck, Yes, I think you 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:48.639 knew this, but I'm not sure everybody listening does. Um. 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.040 If you if you like not you, Chuck put people 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.600 out there. I'm speaking to you now. If you like 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.240 hanging out with us on the podcast, you can hang 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.560 out with this outside of the podcast too. You know. 0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:59.960 Some people are like, can you release a podcast every day? 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.280 No we can't, but we do hang out on Twitter, 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.640 Facebook that kind of thing every day. Yes, we do 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.679 every day. Our Twitter handle is s y SK podcast 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:13.600 Facebook dot com, Slash Stuff you Should Know. Yeah, we're 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.240 trying to get up over a hundred thousand likes on Facebook, 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.920 so close. So if you could like us and then 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.840 just hide us if you don't like us, I don't 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:24.600 even think you need to hide us, like I think 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.280 eight percent of people get any given posts. It varies 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.200 something like that though, right, So, I mean I think 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.840 you will seek us out though, rather than hiding us 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.839 because it's in an entertaining page. We like to deliver 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:38.600 the goods. Yeah, and then of course you can hang 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.520 out with us on our website stuff you should know 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.800 dot com where we have blogs, slide shows, we post 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:48.280 our podcasts there, videos, it's like the the Josh and 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:53.880 Chuck video network. Agreed. Okay, so they're all right. Now 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:59.760 let's talk about electricity. Electricity, electricity. I've had the talking 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:04.520 Head song in my head, which one electricity where all 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.560 these sees or little dots. I thought you're gonna say 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:10.000 once in a lifetime. No, that's what is that called? 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.760 Once in a lifetime? Yeah? Uh yeah, I've been singing 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.520 the Schoolhouse Rock electricity song over and over in my head. 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.800 What about the electric company theme song? M I haven't 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.200 been singing that, but do you remember it? Yeah? That 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.760 was that was Electric Company over Sesame Street. Even Oh, yeah, 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.040 I didn't think there had to be like a you know, 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.200 I didn't know it was like the Stones or the Beatles. 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.360 You know. No, it's uh in the correct answer, there's 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:42.120 the Who. By the way, what do you mean is 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.400 that right now? I mean, yeah, I love the Who, 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.040 but I'm with you. I don't see the need to 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.000 rank things like that. Well, Plus, the Electric Company came 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.840 on after Sesame Street. I think, yeah, excwed slightly older. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.600 I think Sesame Street to me felt like, you know, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.880 seven eight year olds. Electric companies were like eight, nine, ten, twelve. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.440 And then even younger than Sesame Street was pin Wheel 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.359 if I remember correctly, that was after your time. Pinwell 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.480 was pretty cute. It was like little kids, and the 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.560 Sesame Street was like little kids, and then Electric Company 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.640 was like cool and Romper Room was kind of pre 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.400 Sesame Street. Even so, Was that the one with Reggedy, 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.960 Ann and Andy? I don't remember. I just remember it was. 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.840 It's very immature, Yeah, three childish you think Reggedy, Ann 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.280 and Andy were in that? Well, at any rate, we've 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.440 angered enough people now, I know. Uh, I have an 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:38.880 intro for this one. Okay, you ready, about thirteen point 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.480 eight billion years ago, a little something called the Big 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.080 Bang happened and the universe was created, so says you. 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.880 So this there's a lot of people. You know, we 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:53.600 weren't around. Nobody saw it, but it's been detected and 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:58.720 it's strongly suspected by scientists that the universe is thirteen 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.120 point eight billion years old and that it came from 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.600 something called the Big Bang, which, by the way, I 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:08.720 would love to do an episode on Okay, um and 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.960 under the auspices of the Big Bang theory, not the 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.920 TV show, but the actual theory. UM. At that moment, 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.520 all of the energy in the entire universe was created 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:24.800 right then, boom bam. Ever since that point that energy 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.960 has no more energy has been created and none of 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.159 that energy has been destroyed. But it changes states, that 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.680 changes shapes, that can be locked up in different um places. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.599 It can be transferred from one place to another via 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:43.560 some natural ways like convection, conduction, radiation, UM. And like 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:45.560 I said, it can be stored and stuff like it 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:50.080 can be stored in your body. Right. Fat is potential 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.440 energy that can be burned and used for energy to 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.680 carry out work, which is all we're looking to do 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.560 is work. We use energy to carry out work, whether 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.320 it's digging a shovel or lighting a light bulb. That's 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:07.440 what energy does. It produces work, right, Yeah, okay, um, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:09.760 we figured out along the way that we don't have 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.839 to wait around for radiation or convection or conduction to 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:18.720 do its thing to provide energy, because we'd have a 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.279 lot of waiting to do. We wouldn't be in the 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:25.160 computer age right now if it weren't for something called electricity, 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:29.520 which is basically how humans have figured out how to 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.560 harness converting energy from one type of another and then 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:38.520 transmitting it a very long distance. Because electricity isn't a 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.240 primary energy source like the sun or solar radiation or 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:47.520 nuclear energy or even the flow of water kinetic energy. Yeah, 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.719 it's and and it's a secondary energy source. It's a carrier, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:55.839 that's right. So electricity carries energy from one point to another. 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.920 And if you understand that, you understand the very bay 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.800 cyst of while we're gonna talk about today, like we've 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:09.000 figured out how to generate electricity to carry energy to 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.680 produce work down the line, that's right. That's my intro 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.960 which is usually Mechanical energy is what's produced by machine. Yes, 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:22.160 so think about this, like, if you capture mechanical energy 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.760 like water spinning a turbine, which we'll talk about, and 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.040 Niagara falls, that's not gonna do anything to light your 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:34.000 light bulb, uh, two miles away, not by itself. No, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.880 unless you connected to you send the the work produced, 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.320 the energy captured in Niagara falls down to your lightbulb. 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:48.440 And that's what we do using electricity, that's right. Uh, Yeah, 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.800 it's pretty simple. Actually, it seems complicated, but it's not. No, 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.680 just electrons moving around. Yeah, let's talk about electrons, man, 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.000 let's talk about the atom. We should we talk about 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:03.120 the history of this stuff. Yes, let's uh. Back in 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.719 the olden days, in ancient times, there were dudes messing 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:12.679 around with with energy and static electricity without even knowing 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.000 what they were doing. Right, they didn't understand it, But 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.760 that doesn't mean that they weren't playing around with it. No, 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.920 and getting zapped because they're messing mestatic electricity, that's right, 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.840 which will explain all that later too. But there was 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.560 one dude called Dallas of Melitas. He used a philosopher 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.760 in Greece and in six d BC. He has thought 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.880 to have been the first dude to mess around with 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:41.360 electro statics static electricity by rubbing amber with fur and 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.720 he noticed that dust and feathers and things were attracted 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.080 to it. He didn't know what the heck was going on, 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.000 but he knew something was up right, and the amber 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:53.520 plays a pretty big role. It's actually um amber. The 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.400 Latin er I'm sorry that Greek Greek Greek word for 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.880 amber is um electron with a K. That was like 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.360 the way heavy metal, you know, but that's so like 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:08.000 our Our word electricity is derived from the Greek word 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:12.160 for amber, from that first experiment with static electricity. Yeah, 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.640 and it was actually coined by dude name William Gilbert. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.520 He was an Englishman, a physician, and he was studying 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.720 sort of the same things with static electricity. The melitas 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.000 was and he was the first person to say it's 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.280 electric and he saw these forces at work with an 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.920 exclamation point in his finger in the air. Yeah, and 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.800 we should probably we should probably differentiate like statically. There's 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.240 a couple of types of electricity. There's static electricity and 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.840 then there's current electricity, right, and current electricity is what 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:47.840 we are able to generate artificially. Static electricity exists in 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:52.320 nature just naturally, and that was the first experiments carried out. 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.720 Then there's other types of current electricity, like lightning. But 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.440 at this time when these people are messing with electric 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.640 or static electricity or um saying it's electric for the 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:08.280 first time, the concept of electricity was that it was fluid. Well, 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.120 it was fluid. He was on the right track, and 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.760 something is flowing. But they thought it was literally a 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.360 fluid which they called which in those days was called 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.880 a humor. And he said it leaves what he called then, 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:26.920 and uh, a flu the vm fluvium which is atmosphere 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.000 around it. When you create this rubbing action, it removes 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:34.960 that fluid. But it wasn't fluid. They were not dummies 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:36.640 back then, but they were just figuring it all out. 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.120 They weren't dummies because even Ben Franklin thought it was 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:43.440 a fluid. It was the prevailing idea concept of electricity. 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.280 UM and Ben Franklin and a couple of his contemporaries, 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:52.680 including a guy named Thomas Francois Dollabard, Um, we're studying 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.480 electricity big time. And it was when they really investigated 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:03.920 lightning that are understanding of current electricity started to take shape. Yeah, 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.959 the old story of Ben Franklin flying his kite may 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.240 or may not have happened. There are some people that 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.680 think that didn't happen. Now, But if if he didn't 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:15.760 do it, other people did. There were there were guys 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.880 who died carrying out that experiment. Yeah, but was definitely 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.199 carried out. I don't know if Ben Franklin did or not. Yeah, 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.599 that's that's sort of the story that he flew the 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.280 kite with the key, and some people think it either 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:29.920 didn't go down like that or didn't go down with 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.960 him at all. But it's a great story either way. Yeah, 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.480 and I think he at least proposed it that the experiment. Well, yeah, 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.520 and he was the first guy to say that electricity 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.080 has a positive and negative charge and that it flows 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.480 from positive to negative. He's a smart guy, very smart. 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:51.880 He's then there was another smart dude named Coulomb, Charles 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:56.400 Augustine de Coulomb, and he is the one that wrote 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.199 Coulomb's law, and he said charges light charges were l 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.400 opposite charges attract and that's kind of like the basis 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.240 for it all. Yeah, and the force of these charges 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.800 is proportional to the to their product. So if you 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.199 multiply the charges, they are going to be very strong 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.040 or cancel one another out or push one another away. Yeah. 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.760 He basically said, you can now calculate this because of 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.920 my handy dandy little law. Yeah, and with a boom, 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:30.000 he said boom, not bang. Okay, that came earlier. Later on, 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:35.880 a guy named J. J. Thompson said at a science conference, Hey, 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:40.480 I found something smaller than the atom. And everyone said, 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:45.319 silly man, adams are invisible. You can't it even means invisible, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.280 you liar, And he said, no, I promise it's there's 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.760 something smaller. It's got a negative charge, and I'm gonna 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:55.199 call it a corpuscle. No he didn't. Yeah, it's Latin 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.760 for small bodies. And then I think, I don't know 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.400 who later said let's change it to electron. Yeah, it 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.080 sounds way cooler. But the discovery of the electron was 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:08.439 basically the birth of what we know as electricity today. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.079 The understanding of the electron is what it's all about. 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:17.760 And would you say, like so before that time, I 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.760 guess he didn't understand the electron, but he understood electricity. 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:25.600 A guy named Michael Faraday was working on the case. Yeah, 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:30.480 basically everybody's like Ben Franklin electricity hand in hand. Really, 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:35.080 it's Michael Faraday, who's British um who really came to 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:40.000 lay the foundation for electrifying the world. He just he 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.360 created the first dynamo, which is a generator UM which 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:47.360 we'll talk about he um first electric motor. Yeah, he 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:52.280 just he got electricity and he explained it to other 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.240 people very well. Can you even fathom how smart these 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.880 people were to be that in the dark and figuring 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:03.600 all this sub tomic stuff out back then? Hats off, top, 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.000 Hats off to these guys, last chance garage at off 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.600 and back on. Like I I have trouble understanding it 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:13.920 now when it's explained through like Kids for Science website. 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.319 You know, I'm not inventing this figuring this stuff out 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.040 with the first time exactly. And it's a pretty dangerous 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.120 field to try to figure out blind to you know. Yeah, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.679 I mean more than one scientist got a shock from 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.400 a laden jar. Oh yeah, and you can make those? 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.720 You do you make those in science class? Yeah? You 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.120 can make well, it's it's we should say a laden 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.400 jar is a very primitive capacitor. Use a metal rod 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.640 in a jar and nail that's sunk into like some water, 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.240 and it can store a charge. And I think Ben 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.760 Franklin's kite experiment attached the kite to or a rod 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.640 or something to a laden jar to store the charge too, 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:54.040 if that happened, right, But again, he did make the proposal, 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:55.640 it's whether or not he carried it out. Is it 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.040 all right? I guess Now we can get the atoms finally. 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.080 At Ms are very tiny and they make up molecules, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.240 and molecules make up everything you see. Yeah, atoms are 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:11.559 the building block of matter, um and and atom. Remember 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:18.840 we're always talking about nature loves homeostasis, does it? Um, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.880 you've got a balance that nature always seeks tries to 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.280 achieve it. Same with atoms or atoms are no exception. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.800 I should say within an atom, you have nucleus which 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:33.760 is made up of protons and neutrons. Protons are positively 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:38.440 charged particles, neutrons are neutral. And then orbiting that nucleus 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:44.800 making the cool atom symbol are electrons and they're negatively charged. 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:51.600 And when you have an equal number of protons two electrons, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:56.480 you have a neutral atom. There's no potential energy there. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.960 It's just in balance. And uh, a lot of stuf 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.760 off is like that. A lot of stuff isn't balanced, 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.680 some stuff is not well. Some stuff falls out of 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:11.360 balance easier than other stuff. Well. Yeah, the electrons sometimes 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.960 they're super tightly bound to the atom and they don't 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.360 want to leave the house and they want to stick around. 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:22.600 Sometimes they're they're crazy teenagers and the slightest energy and 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.800 movement makes them jump off from the atom and just 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:31.400 say I want to go attach myself to something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.320 And it depends on the material. And those types of 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:39.840 material that have either tightly connected or loosely connected atoms 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:44.800 either um end up conducting electricity very well or don't 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.000 conduct electricity very well, so they act as either electrical 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.800 conductors or electrical insulators. Yeah. Like if you pick up 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.480 a stick off the ground, it's electrons like stay close 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.120 to home, so it's not gonna conduct electricity. If you 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:02.080 pick up a metal rod, as electrons are crazy loose 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.640 and they like to go off and do those things 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:08.840 that teenage electrons do, and therefore it does collect conduct 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.520 electricity right very well under normal circumstances. When you pick 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.200 up that rod, or you pick up that stick. The 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.880 electrons are staying put no matter what. But we figured 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.840 out along the way, thanks to the work of all 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.960 of the people, from the Greeks to Faraday, to Ben 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:30.160 Franklin to your guy with the core puscle idea. Um 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.320 J J. Was his name, j J J J. Corp puscle. 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.000 I think it was Thompson. So thanks to the work 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.480 of all of these people, we figured out how to 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:46.160 knock electrons loose. And it's ingenious and simple, but it's 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:50.760 also very complex, and it involves the relationship between magnetism 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:56.640 and electricity, and we'll talk about that right after this message. 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.240 So Chuck, Yes, we're talking about knocking electronsluice, which is 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.879 ultimately the basis of producing electricity. Yeah, like when you 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:07.680 were a kid in elementary school, you probably did a 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.920 little balloon trick where you make static electricity and make 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.479 the balloon stick to your sweater. All you're doing, you're 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.320 rubbing that balloon on your sweater, and electrons are jumping 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:20.080 from that balloon onto your sweater. And now there are 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:24.760 two different charges going on. Because you're overcharged, the balloon 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:29.080 is now under charged, and because opposite charges attract it 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.919 sticks to your sweater, right, And that's static electricity, and 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.160 static you know, you have static and dynamic, and dynamic 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:40.320 indicates motion. Static indicates staying still um and they use 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.040 that to describe this type of electricity because the electrons 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.879 don't flow, they just sit there and wait for a connection. 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.800 Like when you touch something that's charged, like a door 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:55.040 knob after you've shuffled with your feet in socks over carpet. 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.600 When you touch that door knob, you're forming that connection, 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.960 and all of a sudden, the balance is achieved once more, 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.080 and the electrons flow like you're literally a conductor of 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:08.240 electricity in that moment. Right, So with current electricity, those 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.480 electrons move, they move along a conductive material, say like 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.159 copper y or something like that. That's a hot one. Right. 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:20.760 So let's talk about how you produce an electrical current, right, Okay, 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.480 but let's talk about generators and turbines and all that 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.199 awesome stuff. It sounds like you need to generate that 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.800 electricity what they generate toor right, I think that's what 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.040 generators are called. That why they're called that. Yeah, it's 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.800 funny just how basic some of these things are. Like 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.600 you say, a compute our right, But but you just 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:41.280 you've heard it so many times you take it for 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.639 granted it loses its meeting. It's like looking at a 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.200 word too frequently. Yeah, I think I think a lot 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:52.399 of these words are like that, like a generator, or 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:57.840 a core pustle, or a what's it called when he 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.320 stopped on the electricity, which we'll get to trans former? 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.240 It transforms something. But you say them so much, you're like, 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.920 what's the transformer? Do you know? Anyway? I've been reading 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:12.880 too much science for dummy something. Alright, So generators, Um, well, 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.879 I guess it all comes down to magnetism. Yes, in 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.720 the case of generators. And if you want to listen 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:23.480 to two shows Lightning and Magnetism before this one, it 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.760 might help you understand electricity a little bit more, right, 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:28.200 So just go listen to those. Do that right now 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:33.040 two hours. So, Um, what what I think fair Day 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:37.760 figured out was that because of this relationship between um, 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:42.159 a magnet and electricity, you can take a magnet and 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:47.960 you can move electrons in a say, conductive material. You 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.360 can knock the electrons loose basically using a magnet. Yeah, 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.560 it's like what happens when you attract a paper clip 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.720 to a magnet. It's just the transfer of electrons jumping around. 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:00.480 And you create a flow by flipping the polarity. And 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:05.400 you can do this by rotating metal right, say, like 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:09.479 a coiled copper within the two poles of a large magnet. 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.639 And when you do this, you're reversing polarity all of 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:17.560 a sudden, and you are knocking the electrons loose in 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:22.119 those coils. Um. And the way that you spin the 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:28.120 coils very quickly is by hooking the coils to say 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.040 a shaft. We kind of did this backwards. Let's start 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.760 at the beginning you want to, Okay, let's go to 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:43.119 Niagara Falls. Okay, back in eighteen George Westinghouse, who is 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.160 Nicola Tesla's boss, Which, by the way, if you want 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.480 to listen to another really good podcast, um, go listen 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.280 to that one, Nicola Tesla one. Remember it was all 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.680 about the A C. D C War between Tesla and 0:20:54.880 --> 0:21:01.480 Edison episode animals. Yeah, it's pretty awful, jerk um. But 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:06.480 in eight George Westinghouse set up a hydroelectric power plant 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.520 along the Niagara Falls. And what he did was he 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:14.440 had a means of taking the movement of water, which 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.040 is kinetic energy. The water at the top of the 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:19.960 falls has potential energy, and then once it falls over, 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:24.199 that potential turns to kinetic energy. Well, Westinghouse set up 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.560 a turbine to catch this movement of water, right, which 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:33.400 is actual energy, and have that movement spin a turbine, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.560 a propeller, a fan. Yeah, it's the same concept as 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.320 an old gristmill, except it's not creating energy. It's just 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.000 moving the stones that grind the wheat or corn, right 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.119 the gristmill is in this case it's it's capturing that 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.760 energy by or it's transferring it, we should say, by 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.040 converting that kinetic energy from the water into mechanical energy 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:58.040 spinning the the turbine. The turbine is connected to that 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:00.239 shaft I was talking about where we say, and they 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.280 changed course. And at the end of that shaft, which 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:05.560 is now spinning thanks to the turbine, thanks to the 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:08.879 movement of the water, is some coiled copper and that 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.840 coiled copper is spinning within those two magnets. That's the key, right, 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:15.480 And because of that the electrons are being knocked loose. 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:18.200 You have a power line leading from the coiled copper 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:22.639 out and all of a sudden, you have an electric current. Yeah. 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.320 And um, if you've ever been to the Hoover Dam 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.280 or something, you don't have to have a waterfall or 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:30.520 a river to make this thing work, if you That's 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:33.080 why they build dams. You stop up the water and 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:35.720 then at the base of the dam you have the 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:38.520 means to release that water and then it becomes that 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:42.120 flowing water. Right. And then also for thermal power plants, 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.480 they use nuclear power to create a nuclear reaction to 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.840 produce heat, or they burn coal to produce heat, and 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.480 then they use that heat the heat water, and then 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:54.760 they use that water to create steam, and then that 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:59.440 steam turns a turbine. And these are all just different methods, 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:04.399 whether it's solar or steam or new nuclear. Almost said it, 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:07.720 which is weird because I definitely don't say it that way. Well, 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:10.040 you you're very excited. I think I said enough as 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:13.639 a joke, right that it slips in. But anyway, all 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:17.159 those are just means to turn that turbine, right, And 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:21.040 all it is is you're using that stored energy or 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:25.600 that kinetic energy like over here to create electricity so 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:28.639 that you can transfer it into work down the line. 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:33.000 That's right. It's so cool. Yeah, And this article. We 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:35.280 used a few different articles for this one, like we said, 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.800 including some science for kids websites, which by the way, 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:41.959 I highly recommend if you don't get something. Yeah, it's 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.800 a great place to go visit or these kids websites 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:47.040 because they break it down like super simply because kids 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:53.040 are dumb. But in our article, it uh, it describes 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:55.320 a generator UM as if it was a water and 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:58.360 a pump, which made a lot of sense to me. UM. 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:03.160 The generator is the pump, but instead of pushing water 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:09.240 through a pipe, it's pushing electrons down a line power line, 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.080 and that whole like using water as an analogy UM 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:17.160 for electricity fits very well. Yeah, but you need something 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:20.080 to push it. It's not it's not a self pusher, 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:24.040 so you need that force, and that force is voltage. Yeah, 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:27.160 it's electromotive force. It's the same with water, like UM, 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:31.120 you have water pressure that forces the water down the line, right, 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:35.480 And with electricity you have a force that moves electricity 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.959 and its voltage, like you said, measured in volts, and 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:43.720