Electricity

Key concepts

How Electricity connects to the ideas, people and events around it.

1. Phenomenon

   A phenomenon, sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which cannot be directly observed.

2. Motion

   In physics motion is the change in position of an object or fluid with respect to a reference frame over a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of vector quantities such as displacement, velocity, acceleration, etc.

3. Matter

   In physical science, matter is anything that has mass and occupies space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic particles.

4. Electric charge

   Electric charge is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be positive or negative. Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other.

5. Magnetism

   Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other.

6. Electromagnetism

   In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature.

7. Maxwell's equations

   Maxwell's equations are a set of coupled partial differential equations that describe how electric and magnetic fields are generated by electric charges and currents.

8. Lightning

   Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on the ground.

Questions about Electricity