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ELECTRICITY, Captura de pantalla 2026-04-06 085308, We distinguish two…
ELECTRICITY
Environmental impact of electricity use
Everyday in every action we take, we consume energy. Most of this
energy is electrical in nature..
The first ones produce the following
environmental impact:
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Electric circuits: An electric current is several electrons that flow through a conductor like
water flows through a tube.
An electric circuit is a set of connected components through which an electric current circulates. It is composed of:
- A generator
- A wire conductor
- A switch (to open or close the circuit)
- A receptor (a lightbulb, a motor, a resistor, etc.
Generators
A generator provides the energy necessary to move the electrons. It produces a continuous electric current. We can distinguish four types of generators:
batteries
alternators
Photovoltaic solar cells.
Receptors
In a circuit, the receptors are the components that transform electrical energy into another type of energy like heat, light, motion or even sound
Control and protection components
Control components stop, start or change the direction of the electric current. The most common types are:
A switch
A changeover switch
A push button
Effects of electric current
The energy transported by an electric current has different effects on the
components that the current flows through. It is transformed into other
types of energy, such as heat, light and motion.
Heat
Imagine you are an electron and your wire is the high school’s hallway.
What happens if the hallway is very narrow and there are a lot of you?
What happens when it is not only narrow but also long? Electrons in a wire
behave similarly.
Light
There are two ways to produce light with electricity: when the
temperature increases because of the electric current and when some
gases react to carrying electricity.
Motion
Motors transform electrical energy into motion. They are based on the
forces of attraction and repulsion between a magnet and a conductor
wire placed in one or more loops inside it. The electric current flows
through the conductor wire.
Electric charge: The principle of electric charge explains why objects attract or repel one
another. Electric charge is a property of all objects and is responsible for electrical phenomena
Generalities: All matter is made of very small particles called atoms. These atoms are made up of even smaller particles.
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Connection of the elements in an
electrical circuit
The connection between any two electrical elements can be done
fundamentally in two ways: series or parallel. The combination of both is
known with the name mixed.
Parallel connection
A connection in parallel happens when connecting
each component to one of the branches of the
same conductor, so that all the components
connect to the same positive or negative terminal.
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Series connection
A connection in series happens when we place one
component after another, so the positive terminal of
each component goes into the negative terminal of
the next.
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Electric current: In the previous example with the pen, the charges are at rest. They don’t
move through the electrified material. This is called static electricity.
Conductors and insulators: In these photos we have two circuits, one with a metal spoon (top) and another with a plastic ruler (bottom).
The light comes on with the metal spoon and stays
off with the plastic ruler.
Representation and symbols
As said, an electric circuit contains many different components. However,
we do not want to draw them every single time as they are in real life. For
this reason, each has a symbol that represents them, and we use them as
a simplification.
Electric quantities
The basic electric quantities are voltage, current, and resistance. Voltage, current and resistance
We call charge to the amount of electricity stored in an object. It is the
equivalent of volume of water in the container. It is usually represented by letter Q and is measured in coulombs [C].
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We distinguish two parts, a nucleus which
constitute most of the atom’s mass and is
composed of protons and neutrons (positive and
neutral charge).
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