Electricity

Electricity is the set of   associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of. In early days, electricity was considered as being unrelated to. Later on, many experimental results and the development of indicated that both electricity and magnetism are from a single phenomenon:. Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including, , , s and many others.

The presence of an electric charge, which can be either positive or negative, produces an. The movement of is an  and produces a.

When a charge is placed in a location with a non-zero electric field, a force will act on it. The magnitude of this force is given by. Thus, if that charge were to move, the electric field would be doing on the electric charge. Thus we can speak of at a certain point in space, which is equal to the work done by an external agent in carrying a unit of positive charge from an arbitrarily chosen reference point to that point without any acceleration and is typically measured in s.

Electricity is at the heart of many modern technologies, being used for:
 *  where electric current is used to energise equipment;
 *  which deals with s that involve such as s, s, s and s, and associated passive interconnection technologies.

Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though progress in theoretical understanding remained slow until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even then, practical applications for electricity were few, and it would not be until the late nineteenth century that were able to put it to industrial and residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed industry and society, becoming a driving force for the. Electricity's extraordinary versatility means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include, , , , and. Electrical power is now the backbone of modern industrial society.

History
Long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from. ian texts dating from referred to these fish as the "Thunderer of the ", and described them as the "protectors" of all other fish. Electric fish were again reported millennia later by, and  and. Several ancient writers, such as and, attested to the numbing effect of s delivered by  and s, and knew that such shocks could travel along conducting objects. Patients suffering from ailments such as or  were directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them. Possibly the earliest and nearest approach to the discovery of the identity of, and electricity from any other source, is to be attributed to the , who before the 15th century had the word for lightning ra‘ad  applied to the.

Ancient cultures around the knew that certain objects, such as rods of, could be rubbed with cat's fur to attract light objects like feathers. made a series of observations on around 600 BCE, from which he believed that friction rendered amber, in contrast to minerals such as , which needed no rubbing. Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. According to a controversial theory, the ns may have had knowledge of, based on the 1936 discovery of the , which resembles a , though it is uncertain whether the artifact was electrical in nature.

Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for millennia until 1600, when the English scientist wrote , in which he made a careful study of electricity and magnetism, distinguishing the  effect from static electricity produced by rubbing amber. He coined the word electricus ("of amber" or "like amber", from ??e?t???, elektron, the  word for "amber") to refer to the property of attracting small objects after being rubbed. This association gave rise to the English words "electric" and "electricity", which made their first appearance in print in 's  of 1646.

Further work was conducted in the 17th and early 18th centuries by, , and. Later in the 18th century, conducted extensive research in electricity, selling his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky. A succession of sparks jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed that was indeed electrical in nature. He also explained the apparently paradoxical behavior of the as a device for storing large amounts of electrical charge in terms of electricity consisting of both positive and negative charges.

In 1791, published his discovery of, demonstrating that electricity was the medium by which s passed signals to the muscles. 's battery, or, of 1800, made from alternating layers of zinc and copper, provided scientists with a more reliable source of electrical energy than the s previously used. The recognition of, the unity of electric and magnetic phenomena, is due to and  in 1819–1820. invented the in 1821, and  mathematically analysed the electrical circuit in 1827. Electricity and magnetism (and light) were definitively linked by, in particular in his "" in 1861 and 1862.

While the early 19th century had seen rapid progress in electrical science, the late 19th century would see the greatest progress in. Through such people as, , , , , , , , , , , and , electricity turned from a scientific curiosity into an essential tool for modern life.

In 1887, discovered that s illuminated with ultraviolet light create s more easily. In 1905, published a paper that explained experimental data from the  as being the result of light energy being carried in discrete quantized packets, energising electrons. This discovery led to the revolution. Einstein was awarded the in 1921 for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The photoelectric effect is also employed in s such as can be found in s and this is frequently used to make electricity commercially.

The first was the "" first used in the 1900s in radio receivers. A whisker-like wire is placed lightly in contact with a solid crystal (such as a crystal) to detect a  signal by the contact junction effect. In a solid-state component, the is confined to solid elements and compounds engineered specifically to switch and amplify it. Current flow can be understood in two forms: as negatively charged s, and as positively charged electron deficiencies called. These charges and holes are understood in terms of quantum physics. The building material is most often a crystalline.

The solid-state device came into its own with the invention of the in 1947. Common solid-state devices include s, chips, and. A specialized type of RAM called is used in s and more recently, s to replace mechanically rotating magnetic disc s. Solid state devices became prevalent in the 1950s and the 1960s, during the transition from s to semiconductor s, s,  (IC) and the  (LED).

Electric charge
The presence of charge gives rise to an electrostatic force: charges exert a on each other, an effect that was known, though not understood, in antiquity. A lightweight ball suspended from a string can be charged by touching it with a glass rod that has itself been charged by rubbing with a cloth. If a similar ball is charged by the same glass rod, it is found to repel the first: the charge acts to force the two balls apart. Two balls that are charged with a rubbed amber rod also repel each other. However, if one ball is charged by the glass rod, and the other by an amber rod, the two balls are found to attract each other. These phenomena were investigated in the late eighteenth century by, who deduced that charge manifests itself in two opposing forms. This discovery led to the well-known axiom: like-charged objects repel and opposite-charged objects attract.

The force acts on the charged particles themselves, hence charge has a tendency to spread itself as evenly as possible over a conducting surface. The magnitude of the electromagnetic force, whether attractive or repulsive, is given by, which relates the force to the product of the charges and has an relation to the distance between them. The electromagnetic force is very strong, second only in strength to the, but unlike that force it operates over all distances. In comparison with the much weaker, the electromagnetic force pushing two electrons apart is 1042 times that of the al attraction pulling them together.

Study has shown that the origin of charge is from certain types of s which have the property of electric charge. Electric charge gives rise to and interacts with the, one of the four s of nature. The most familiar carriers of electrical charge are the and. Experiment has shown charge to be a, that is, the net charge within an electrically isolated system will always remain constant regardless of any changes taking place within that system. Within the system, charge may be transferred between bodies, either by direct contact, or by passing along a conducting material, such as a wire. The informal term refers to the net presence (or 'imbalance') of charge on a body, usually caused when dissimilar materials are rubbed together, transferring charge from one to the other.

The charge on electrons and protons is opposite in sign, hence an amount of charge may be expressed as being either negative or positive. By convention, the charge carried by electrons is deemed negative, and that by protons positive, a custom that originated with the work of. The amount of charge is usually given the symbol Q and expressed in s; each electron carries the same charge of approximately -1.6022×10-19. The proton has a charge that is equal and opposite, and thus +1.6022×10-19 coulomb. Charge is possessed not just by, but also by , each bearing an equal and opposite charge to its corresponding particle.

Charge can be measured by a number of means, an early instrument being the, which although still in use for classroom demonstrations, has been superseded by the electronic.

Electric current
The movement of electric charge is known as an, the intensity of which is usually measured in s. Current can consist of any moving charged particles; most commonly these are electrons, but any charge in motion constitutes a current. Electric current can flow through some things, s, but will not flow through an.

By historical convention, a positive current is defined as having the same direction of flow as any positive charge it contains, or to flow from the most positive part of a circuit to the most negative part. Current defined in this manner is called. The motion of negatively charged electrons around an, one of the most familiar forms of current, is thus deemed positive in the opposite direction to that of the electrons. However, depending on the conditions, an electric current can consist of a flow of s in either direction, or even in both directions at once. The positive-to-negative convention is widely used to simplify this situation.

The process by which electric current passes through a material is termed, and its nature varies with that of the charged particles and the material through which they are travelling. Examples of electric currents include metallic conduction, where electrons flow through a such as metal, and, where s (charged s) flow through liquids, or through  such as electrical sparks. While the particles themselves can move quite slowly, sometimes with an average only fractions of a millimetre per second, the  that drives them itself propagates at close to the, enabling electrical signals to pass rapidly along wires.

Current causes several observable effects, which historically were the means of recognising its presence. That water could be decomposed by the current from a voltaic pile was discovered by and  in 1800, a process now known as. Their work was greatly expanded upon by in 1833. Current through a causes localised heating, an effect  studied mathematically in 1840. One of the most important discoveries relating to current was made accidentally by in 1820, when, while preparing a lecture, he witnessed the current in a wire disturbing the needle of a magnetic compass. He had discovered, a fundamental interaction between electricity and magnetics. The level of electromagnetic emissions generated by ing is high enough to produce, which can be detrimental to the workings of adjacent equipment.

In engineering or household applications, current is often described as being either (DC) or  (AC). These terms refer to how the current varies in time. Direct current, as produced by example from a and required by most  devices, is a unidirectional flow from the positive part of a circuit to the negative. If, as is most common, this flow is carried by electrons, they will be travelling in the opposite direction. Alternating current is any current that reverses direction repeatedly; almost always this takes the form of a. Alternating current thus pulses back and forth within a conductor without the charge moving any net distance over time. The time-averaged value of an alternating current is zero, but it delivers energy in first one direction, and then the reverse. Alternating current is affected by electrical properties that are not observed under direct current, such as  and. These properties however can become important when circuitry is subjected to, such as when first energised.

Electric field
The concept of the electric was introduced by. An electric field is created by a charged body in the space that surrounds it, and results in a force exerted on any other charges placed within the field. The electric field acts between two charges in a similar manner to the way that the gravitational field acts between two es, and like it, extends towards infinity and shows an inverse square relationship with distance. However, there is an important difference. Gravity always acts in attraction, drawing two masses together, while the electric field can result in either attraction or repulsion. Since large bodies such as planets generally carry no net charge, the electric field at a distance is usually zero. Thus gravity is the dominant force at distance in the universe, despite being much weaker.

An electric field generally varies in space, and its strength at any one point is defined as the force (per unit charge) that would be felt by a stationary, negligible charge if placed at that point. The conceptual charge, termed a '', must be vanishingly small to prevent its own electric field disturbing the main field and must also be stationary to prevent the effect of s. As the electric field is defined in terms of, and force is a , so it follows that an electric field is also a vector, having both and. Specifically, it is a.

The study of electric fields created by stationary charges is called. The field may be visualised by a set of imaginary lines whose direction at any point is the same as that of the field. This concept was introduced by Faraday, whose term '' still sometimes sees use. The field lines are the paths that a point positive charge would seek to make as it was forced to move within the field; they are however an imaginary concept with no physical existence, and the field permeates all the intervening space between the lines. Field lines emanating from stationary charges have several key properties: first, that they originate at positive charges and terminate at negative charges; second, that they must enter any good conductor at right angles, and third, that they may never cross nor close in on themselves.

A hollow conducting body carries all its charge on its outer surface. The field is therefore zero at all places inside the body. This is the operating principal of the, a conducting metal shell which isolates its interior from outside electrical effects.

The principles of electrostatics are important when designing items of equipment. There is a finite limit to the electric field strength that may be withstood by any medium. Beyond this point, occurs and an  causes flashover between the charged parts. Air, for example, tends to arc across small gaps at electric field strengths which exceed 30 kV per centimetre. Over larger gaps, its breakdown strength is weaker, perhaps 1 kV per centimetre. The most visible natural occurrence of this is, caused when charge becomes separated in the clouds by rising columns of air, and raises the electric field in the air to greater than it can withstand. The voltage of a large lightning cloud may be as high as 100 MV and have discharge energies as great as 250 kWh.

The field strength is greatly affected by nearby conducting objects, and it is particularly intense when it is forced to curve around sharply pointed objects. This principle is exploited in the, the sharp spike of which acts to encourage the lightning stroke to develop there, rather than to the building it serves to protect

Electric potential
The concept of electric potential is closely linked to that of the electric field. A small charge placed within an electric field experiences a force, and to have brought that charge to that point against the force requires. The electric potential at any point is defined as the energy required to bring a unit test charge from an slowly to that point. It is usually measured in s, and one volt is the potential for which one of work must be expended to bring a charge of one  from infinity. This definition of potential, while formal, has little practical application, and a more useful concept is that of, and is the energy required to move a unit charge between two specified points. An electric field has the special property that it is , which means that the path taken by the test charge is irrelevant: all paths between two specified points expend the same energy, and thus a unique value for potential difference may be stated. The volt is so strongly identified as the unit of choice for measurement and description of electric potential difference that the term sees greater everyday usage.

For practical purposes, it is useful to define a common reference point to which potentials may be expressed and compared. While this could be at infinity, a much more useful reference is the itself, which is assumed to be at the same potential everywhere. This reference point naturally takes the name or. Earth is assumed to be an infinite source of equal amounts of positive and negative charge, and is therefore electrically uncharged—and unchargeable.

Electric potential is a, that is, it has only magnitude and not direction. It may be viewed as analogous to : just as a released object will fall through a difference in heights caused by a gravitational field, so a charge will 'fall' across the voltage caused by an electric field. As relief maps show s marking points of equal height, a set of lines marking points of equal potential (known as s) may be drawn around an electrostatically charged object. The equipotentials cross all lines of force at right angles. They must also lie parallel to a 's surface, otherwise this would produce a force that will move the charge carriers to even the potential of the surface.

The electric field was formally defined as the force exerted per unit charge, but the concept of potential allows for a more useful and equivalent definition: the electric field is the local of the electric potential. Usually expressed in volts per metre, the vector direction of the field is the line of greatest slope of potential, and where the equipotentials lie closest together.

Electromagnets
Ørsted's discovery in 1821 that a existed around all sides of a wire carrying an electric current indicated that there was a direct relationship between electricity and magnetism. Moreover, the interaction seemed different from gravitational and electrostatic forces, the two forces of nature then known. The force on the compass needle did not direct it to or away from the current-carrying wire, but acted at right angles to it. Ørsted's slightly obscure words were that "the electric conflict acts in a revolving manner." The force also depended on the direction of the current, for if the flow was reversed, then the force did too.

Ørsted did not fully understand his discovery, but he observed the effect was reciprocal: a current exerts a force on a magnet, and a magnetic field exerts a force on a current. The phenomenon was further investigated by, who discovered that two parallel current-carrying wires exerted a force upon each other: two wires conducting currents in the same direction are attracted to each other, while wires containing currents in opposite directions are forced apart. The interaction is mediated by the magnetic field each current produces and forms the basis for the international.

This relationship between magnetic fields and currents is extremely important, for it led to Michael Faraday's invention of the in 1821. Faraday's consisted of a  sitting in a pool of. A current was allowed through a wire suspended from a pivot above the magnet and dipped into the mercury. The magnet exerted a tangential force on the wire, making it circle around the magnet for as long as the current was maintained.

Experimentation by Faraday in 1831 revealed that a wire moving perpendicular to a magnetic field developed a potential difference between its ends. Further analysis of this process, known as, enabled him to state the principle, now known as , that the potential difference induced in a closed circuit is proportional to the rate of change of through the loop. Exploitation of this discovery enabled him to invent the first in 1831, in which he converted the mechanical energy of a rotating copper disc to electrical energy. was inefficient and of no use as a practical generator, but it showed the possibility of generating electric power using magnetism, a possibility that would be taken up by those that followed on from his work.

Electrochemistry
The ability of chemical reactions to produce electricity, and conversely the ability of electricity to drive chemical reactions has a wide array of uses.

Electrochemistry has always been an important part of electricity. From the initial invention of the Voltaic pile, s have evolved into the many different types of batteries, electroplating and electrolysis cells. is produced in vast quantities this way, and many portable devices are electrically powered using rechargeable cells.

Electric circuits
An electric circuit is an interconnection of electric components such that electric charge is made to flow along a closed path (a circuit), usually to perform some useful task.

The components in an electric circuit can take many forms, which can include elements such as s, s, es, s and. s contain s, usually s, and typically exhibit behaviour, requiring complex analysis. The simplest electric components are those that are termed and : while they may temporarily store energy, they contain no sources of it, and exhibit linear responses to stimuli.

The is perhaps the simplest of passive circuit elements: as its name suggests, it  the current through it, dissipating its energy as heat. The resistance is a consequence of the motion of charge through a conductor: in metals, for example, resistance is primarily due to collisions between electrons and ions. is a basic law of, stating that the current passing through a resistance is directly proportional to the potential difference across it. The resistance of most materials is relatively constant over a range of temperatures and currents; materials under these conditions are known as 'ohmic'. The, the unit of resistance, was named in honour of , and is symbolised by the Greek letter O. 1 O is the resistance that will produce a potential difference of one volt in response to a current of one amp.

The is a development of the Leyden jar and is a device that can store charge, and thereby storing electrical energy in the resulting field. It consists of two conducting plates separated by a thin  layer; in practice, thin metal foils are coiled together, increasing the surface area per unit volume and therefore the. The unit of capacitance is the, named after , and given the symbol F: one farad is the capacitance that develops a potential difference of one volt when it stores a charge of one coulomb. A capacitor connected to a voltage supply initially causes a current as it accumulates charge; this current will however decay in time as the capacitor fills, eventually falling to zero. A capacitor will therefore not permit a current, but instead blocks it.

The is a conductor, usually a coil of wire, that stores energy in a magnetic field in response to the current through it. When the current changes, the magnetic field does too, a voltage between the ends of the conductor. The induced voltage is proportional to the of the current. The constant of proportionality is termed the. The unit of inductance is the, named after , a contemporary of Faraday. One henry is the inductance that will induce a potential difference of one volt if the current through it changes at a rate of one ampere per second. The inductor's behaviour is in some regards converse to that of the capacitor: it will freely allow an unchanging current, but opposes a rapidly changing one.

Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which is transferred by an. The unit of  is the, one  per.

Electric power, like, is the rate of doing , measured in s, and represented by the letter P. The term wattage is used colloquially to mean "electric power in watts." The electric power in s produced by an electric current I consisting of a charge of Q coulombs every t seconds passing through an  difference of V is
 * $$P = \text{work done per unit time} = \frac {QV}{t} = IV \,$$

where
 * Q is electric charge in s
 * t is time in seconds
 * I is electric current in s
 * V is electric potential or voltage in s

is often done with s, but can also be supplied by chemical sources such as or by other means from a wide variety of sources of energy. Electric power is generally supplied to businesses and homes by the. Electricity is usually sold by the (3.6 MJ) which is the product of power in kilowatts multiplied by running time in hours. Electric utilities measure power using s, which keep a running total of the electric energy delivered to a customer. Unlike fossil fuels, electricity is a low form of energy and can be converted into motion or many other forms of energy with high efficiency.

Electronics
Electronics deals with s that involve such as s, s, s,, s and s, and associated passive interconnection technologies. The behaviour of active components and their ability to control electron flows makes amplification of weak signals possible and electronics is widely used in, , and. The ability of electronic devices to act as es makes digital information processing possible. Interconnection technologies such as s, electronics packaging technology, and other varied forms of communication infrastructure complete circuit functionality and transform the mixed components into a regular working.

Today, most electronic devices use components to perform electron control. The study of semiconductor devices and related technology is considered a branch of, whereas the design and construction of s to solve practical problems come under.

Electromagnetic wave
Faraday's and Ampère's work showed that a time-varying magnetic field acted as a source of an electric field, and a time-varying electric field was a source of a magnetic field. Thus, when either field is changing in time, then a field of the other is necessarily induced. Such a phenomenon has the properties of a, and is naturally referred to as an. Electromagnetic waves were analysed theoretically by in 1864. Maxwell developed a set of equations that could unambiguously describe the interrelationship between electric field, magnetic field, electric charge, and electric current. He could moreover prove that such a wave would necessarily travel at the, and thus light itself was a form of electromagnetic radiation. , which unify light, fields, and charge are one of the great milestones of theoretical physics.

Thus, the work of many researchers enabled the use of electronics to convert signals into oscillating currents, and via suitably shaped conductors, electricity permits the transmission and reception of these signals via radio waves over very long distances.

Generation and transmission
In the 6th century BC, the Greek philosopher experimented with amber rods and these experiments were the first studies into the production of electrical energy. While this method, now known as the, can lift light objects and generate sparks, it is extremely inefficient. It was not until the invention of the voltaic pile in the eighteenth century that a viable source of electricity became available. The voltaic pile, and its modern descendant, the, store energy chemically and make it available on demand in the form of electrical energy. The battery is a versatile and very common power source which is ideally suited to many applications, but its energy storage is finite, and once discharged it must be disposed of or recharged. For large electrical demands electrical energy must be generated and transmitted continuously over conductive transmission lines.

Electrical power is usually generated by electro-mechanical driven by  produced from  combustion, or the heat released from nuclear reactions; or from other sources such as  extracted from wind or flowing water. The modern invented by  in 1884 today generates about 80 percent of the  in the world using a variety of heat sources. Such generators bear no resemblance to Faraday's homopolar disc generator of 1831, but they still rely on his electromagnetic principle that a conductor linking a changing magnetic field induces a potential difference across its ends. The invention in the late nineteenth century of the meant that electrical power could be transmitted more efficiently at a higher voltage but lower current. Efficient meant in turn that electricity could be generated at centralised s, where it benefited from, and then be despatched relatively long distances to where it was needed.

Since electrical energy cannot easily be stored in quantities large enough to meet demands on a national scale, at all times exactly as much must be produced as is required. This requires to make careful predictions of their electrical loads, and maintain constant co-ordination with their power stations. A certain amount of generation must always be held in to cushion an electrical grid against inevitable disturbances and losses.

Demand for electricity grows with great rapidity as a nation modernises and its economy develops. The United States showed a 12% increase in demand during each year of the first three decades of the twentieth century, a rate of growth that is now being experienced by emerging economies such as those of India or China. Historically, the growth rate for electricity demand has outstripped that for other forms of energy.

have led to an increased focus on generation from, in particular from and. While debate can be expected to continue over the environmental impact of different means of electricity production, its final form is relatively clean.

Applications
Electricity is a very convenient way to transfer energy, and it has been adapted to a huge, and growing, number of uses. The invention of a practical in the 1870s led to  becoming one of the first publicly available applications of electrical power. Although electrification brought with it its own dangers, replacing the naked flames of gas lighting greatly reduced fire hazards within homes and factories. Public utilities were set up in many cities targeting the burgeoning market for electrical lighting. In the late 20th century and in modern times, the trend has started to flow in the direction of deregulation in the electrical power sector.

The resistive effect employed in filament light bulbs also sees more direct use in. While this is versatile and controllable, it can be seen as wasteful, since most electrical generation has already required the production of heat at a power station. A number of countries, such as Denmark, have issued legislation restricting or banning the use of resistive electric heating in new buildings. Electricity is however still a highly practical energy source for heating and, with /s representing a growing sector for electricity demand for heating and cooling, the effects of which electricity utilities are increasingly obliged to accommodate.

Electricity is used within s, and indeed the, demonstrated commercially in 1837 by and , was one of its earliest applications. With the construction of first, and then , telegraph systems in the 1860s, electricity had enabled communications in minutes across the globe. and have taken a share of the market for communications systems, but electricity can be expected to remain an essential part of the process.

The effects of electromagnetism are most visibly employed in the, which provides a clean and efficient means of motive power. A stationary motor such as a is easily provided with a supply of power, but a motor that moves with its application, such as an, is obliged to either carry along a power source such as a battery, or to collect current from a sliding contact such as a. Electrically powered vehicles are used in public transportation, such as electric buses and trains, and an increasing number of battery-powered s in private ownership.

Electronic devices make use of the, perhaps one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century, and a fundamental building block of all modern circuitry. A modern may contain several billion miniaturised transistors in a region only a few centimetres square.

Physiological effects
A voltage applied to a human body causes an electric current through the tissues, and although the relationship is non-linear, the greater the voltage, the greater the current. The threshold for perception varies with the supply frequency and with the path of the current, but is about 0.1 mA to 1 mA for mains-frequency electricity, though a current as low as a microamp can be detected as an effect under certain conditions. If the current is sufficiently high, it will cause muscle contraction, of the heart, and. The lack of any visible sign that a conductor is electrified makes electricity a particular hazard. The pain caused by an electric shock can be intense, leading electricity at times to be employed as a method of. Death caused by an electric shock is referred to as. Electrocution is still the means of in some jurisdictions, though its use has become rarer in recent times.

Electrical phenomena in nature
Electricity is not a human invention, and may be observed in several forms in nature, a prominent manifestation of which is. Many interactions familiar at the macroscopic level, such as, or ing, are due to interactions between electric fields on the atomic scale. The is thought to arise from a  of circulating currents in the planet's core. Certain crystals, such as, or even , generate a potential difference across their faces when subjected to external pressure. This phenomenon is known as, from the piezein (p???e??), meaning to press, and was discovered in 1880 by  and. The effect is reciprocal, and when a piezoelectric material is subjected to an electric field, a small change in physical dimensions takes place.

is a prominent phenomenon in soils and sediment ecology resulting from. The mimics this ubiquitous natural phenomenon.

Some organisms, such as s, are able to detect and respond to changes in electric fields, an ability known as, while others, termed , are able to generate voltages themselves to serve as a predatory or defensive weapon. The order, of which the best known example is the , detect or stun their prey via high voltages generated from modified muscle cells called. All animals transmit information along their cell membranes with voltage pulses called s, whose functions include communication by the nervous system between s and s. An electric shock stimulates this system, and causes muscles to contract. Action potentials are also responsible for coordinating activities in certain plants.

Cultural perception
In 1850, asked the scientist  why electricity was valuable. Faraday answered, “One day sir, you may tax it.”

In the 19th and early 20th century, electricity was not part of the everyday life of many people, even in the industrialised. The of the time accordingly often depicted it as a mysterious, quasi-magical force that can slay the living, revive the dead or otherwise bend the laws of nature. This attitude began with the 1771 experiments of in which the legs of dead frogs were shown to twitch on application of. "Revitalization" or resuscitation of apparently dead or drowned persons was reported in the medical literature shortly after Galvani's work. These results were known to when she authored  (1819), although she does not name the method of revitalization of the monster. The revitalization of monsters with electricity later became a stock theme in horror films.

As the public familiarity with electricity as the lifeblood of the grew, its wielders were more often cast in a positive light, such as the workers who "finger death at their gloves' end as they piece and repiece the living wires" in 's 1907 poem . Electrically powered vehicles of every sort featured large in adventure stories such as those of and the  books. The masters of electricity, whether fictional or real—including scientists such as, or —were popularly conceived of as having wizard-like powers.

With electricity ceasing to be a novelty and becoming a necessity of everyday life in the later half of the 20th century, it required particular attention by popular culture only when it stops flowing, an event that usually signals disaster. The people who keep it flowing, such as the nameless hero of ’s song "" (1968), are still often cast as heroic, wizard-like figures.