0e30ac49-aa9f-4e8c-b5b0-c76d6bbbce49.jfif

# Chapter 1: Introduction to Electricity ## 1. Introduction - Electricity is a form of energy generated by friction, induction, or chemical change, having magnetic, chemical, and radiant effects. In short, "Electricity is Electrons in motion". - The study and development of electricity occurred ov...

# Chapter 1: Introduction to Electricity ## 1. Introduction - Electricity is a form of energy generated by friction, induction, or chemical change, having magnetic, chemical, and radiant effects. In short, "Electricity is Electrons in motion". - The study and development of electricity occurred over many centuries. It has its roots about 600 B.C.E. when a Greek mathematician named Thales documented what eventually became known as static electricity. He recorded that after rubbing amber, a yellowish, translucent mineral, with a piece of wool or fur other light objects such as straw or feathers were attracted to the amber. - The term electricity, which is derived from the Latin term electricus, meaning to "produce from amber by friction". It has its roots in the Greek term elektor, which means, "beaming sun." - Electricity is one of the most useful discoveries of man which paved the way to the numerous inventions from the simple tools to the most sophisticated gadgets making what originally seemed to be impossible a reality. - William Gilbert -- about 1600, an English Physicist was called the Father of Electricity after publishing his studies on the "Electric Attraction" and "The Electric Force." - Otto von Guericke - In 1663, a German experimenter, built the first electric generator, which produced static electricity by applying friction in the machine. It was constructed of a ball of sulfur, rotated by a crank with one hand and rubbed with the other. - Stephen Gray In 1729, a British chemist, distinguished between materials that were conductors and nonconductors. He is credited with discovering that electricity can flow. - In 1746, Ewald Georg von Kleist, a German inventor, and Pieter van Musschenbroek, a Dutch physicist of University of Leyden, working independently, invented an electrical storage device called Leyden jar, named after the city, a glass jar coated inside and outside with tin foil. It demonstrated that electricity could be stored for future use. - Benjamin Franklin - In 1747, an American inventor and statesman, suggested the existence of an electrical fluid and surmised that an electric charge was made up of two types of electric forces, an attractive force and a repulsive force which are named positive and negative. - In 1752, Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment. He flew a kite with a stiff wire pointing upward as a thunderstorm was about to break. He attached a metal key to the other end of the hemp string, and let it hang close to a Leyden jar. Rain moistened the string, which could then conduct electricity. Spark jumped form the key to the jar. Although there was no lightning, there was enough electricity in the air to prove that electricity and lightning are the same thing. - Luigi Galvani - In 1786, an Italian anatomy professor, observed that a discharge of static electricity made a dead frog's leg twitch. Galvani then concluded that the frog's legs contained electricity and was released when the legs touched metal. - Alessandro Volta - an Italian physicist, expanded Galvani's findings and built the voltaic pile, an early type of electric cell or battery. - Hans Christian Oersted - In 1820, a Danish physicist, discovered that a magnetic field surrounds a current carrying wire, by observing that electrical currents affected the needle on a compass. - Andre Marie Ampere - a French mathematician, observed that a coil of wires acts like a magnet when electrical current is pass through it.