A lot of people don’t understand electricity, but they use it all the time. Normally I’d agree with this approach: know enough so you can make good use of it, and for the most part, I’ve done that in this course. However, because this is such an advanced course specifically in electricity, I want to make sure we’ve busted the main myths out there around electricity, Over the years, I’ve heard many different ideas folks have about electricity, and at some level, it’s really not their fault for these misconceptions because they are still so popular.

It’s important as a scientist that you question not only what you know but how you know what you know. This will lead you to the truth about how things work, and not just what most people think the reason is (which isn’t usually correct). Here are a couple of mainstream ones that still persist today:
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1. If a battery is dead, it is out of charge, and you have to recharge it so it works.
2. The current that flows through the circuit starts in the battery.
3. The utility company supplies electrons to your house through the outlet.
4. Electrons move at light speed in the circuit.
5. Electrons get used up as they move through the circuit.
6. Benjamin Franklin invented the light bulb.

Note that all of these above are false! Your test for today is to make sure you understand why that is for each one. Go back and re-read this section and the previous sections if you need more help. Here’s a couple of hints if you need it:

To review, a battery provides energy move a charge from a low potential to a high potential, and the charge came from the wires and electrical components inside the circuit itself. The charge is carried by electrons in the metal components. Charge moves really slow (about 1 meter per hour), but the signal to moves travels near the speed of light. Charge moves through the circuit at the same rate everywhere in the circuit (charge doesn’t build up in a circuit that is closed and conducting properly). A circuit is really an energy transforming device that takes chemical energy from the battery and transformed it to electrical energy in the circuit and transforms that into different kinds of energy like motion, heat, light, and sound.

Click here to go to your next lesson on Electric Circuits!

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