Learn more about renewable energy. How is natural gas formed? It started millions of years ago. Learn more about natural gas. Why does natural gas smell like rotten eggs? Natural gas is actually odorless. Where does gas go when it leaks? When gas leaks, it's an emergency situation. Learn more about natural gas safety. What happens when someone gets shocked by electricity? Electric shocks can be deadly. What are the most common ways you can get shocked by electricity?
Most electric shocks occur from: Using electricity near water. Using electrical cords and appliances that are damaged. Getting too close to power lines when climbing trees, climbing on a roof, using ladders or other tools.
Being too close to power lines that have fallen down after a storm or vehicle accident. Being in or on backyard transformers or substation electrical equipment. Learn more about electric safety.
Why does the power go out from time to time? Most power outages are caused by the weather. Check generation facilities to determine if the original power source is still operating.
Repair transmission lines that carry electricity from the generation stations to substations. Repair substations where high-voltage power from the transmission lines is reduced for home usage. Repair distribution lines that carry electricity from substations to each neighborhood.
Repair the tap lines that serve anywhere from 20 to homes and businesses. Reconnect lines to individual customers - this is the most difficult and time-consuming step in the restoration process.
What are carbon emissions? Carbon emissions are sometimes called "greenhouse gases. How does conserving water relate to conserving energy? Learn how to conserve water. The smart grid gets straight A's. Learn more about smart homes. What should you do with a dead battery? It depends on the type of battery. The noise can be deafening! You should also wait until the storm passes to take a shower or use any water.
Lightning can travel through water and give you quite a shock. Lightning is electricity, which means that some objects on the ground attract or conduct lightning. These objects include:. If you ever see anyone get struck by lighting, call right away. They will need medical attention. I can finish playing my game before I go inside.
If you see any signs of a lightning storm, you should head home right away. Do not finish your game and do not wait for it to start raining. It is important to try to get to a safe place right away.
Lightning never strikes the same place twice. If there is a tall structure or object, lightning can hit it more than once. Buildings like the Empire State building can get hit over times every year! Only tall objects and buildings get hit by lightning. While it might seem like only tall objects get hit by lightning, this isn?
Scientist can? It is true that something tall is more likely to get hit by lightning, but not always! Most of it goes into the ground.
However, there are scientists working on different ways to try and harvest electricity from lightning. This will help to create new energy without harming the environment. It may seem as though electricity has been around forever, but in reality electricity has only been here for a few hundred years. These electric stations were only able to provide power to a few blocks at a time, but they started bringing electricity into buildings around the U.
This has helped us create green, eco-friendly ways of making electricity such as solar power and wind power. When we need electricity, all we really need to do is flip a switch or turn the button on our television, and we can instantly start using as much power we need. It seems so easy for electricity to get into our homes, when the truth is electricity has to travel hundreds of miles in order for us to use all of our favorite electronics.
You know those poles and wires you see along the road? Those are the? These wires and poles are very important and help make it possible, but before electricity can start traveling to our televisions and microwaves, it needs to be made first!
Electricity is made at huge power plants across the country. These factories can use coal, wind, water, natural gas and other resources to make electricity. Once the plant has made the electricity it is sent through things called transformers. These transformers give the electricity the boost it needs to travel long distances. Usually electricity has to travel hundreds of miles. This electrical charge is pushed into lines called transmission lines.
These are the big wires you see all over your community. These lines stretch through the country so everyone can have access to electricity. After that charge has traveled miles and miles through the transmission lines it arrives to the substation. Here, the charge is slowed down a bit so it isn?
The boost it got from the transformers is taken away so it can safely travel to your home. This electricity then goes through smaller lines called distribution lines. These distribution lines are connected to our homes, schools and buildings throughout our neighborhood. These distribution lines bring the electricity through the meter outside your house. This meter tells you how much you and your family uses in electricity every month.
From there that burst of electricity goes through all these little wires inside the walls of your home and to the outlets and switches all over your house, so you can start using electricity however you want. When you plug in an electronic to one of these outlets, that electricity that started in a plant hundreds of miles away is pushed right through your item, allowing you to use your favorite gadgets whenever you want.
There are so many different terms that help us understand electricity and how it works. The more vocab words you know about electricity, the more you know about the energy you use every day. Amps — Amps are used to measure the flow of an electric current through a substance or material also known as a conductor. Blackout — When an entire area supplied by the same electric company loses power. When the lights go out during a storm, this is typically called a blackout.
Circuit — A path that an electric current follows in order to reach its final destination. For example, when a burst of electricity goes from the meter in your house to the computer in your room, it is following a circuit.
Conductor — Any type of material that allows electricity to flow through it. Fuse — A very important safety device that stops the flow of electricity in situations where too much electricity could be dangerous. Sometimes when you are using an item at too high of power, such as a hairdryer, it may cause your entire outlet to turn off. Your parents may refer to this as? This is happening because there was too much electricity going through the socket in your home and the fuse helped keep you safe.
Geothermal Energy — Energy that is taken from the heat from underneath the earth. Grid — A grid is a series of paths, substations and power lines that allow electricity to travel from one place to another. Insulator — An item that does not allow electricity to run through it. Certain items may be insulated to keep electricity where it is supposed to be. Kilowatt KW — A kilowatt is 1, watts. This is a common way of measuring how much energy something uses.
Kilowatt Hour kWh — Using 1, watts of electricity for a full hour. If your laptop uses 5 kWh it means it uses 5, watts of electricity every hour. Meter — A machine that measures how much energy something uses.
There is an electric meter outside your house that tells you how much electricity your family is using. Nuclear Power — Energy that comes from a nuclear reactor. In these power plants, machines split atoms as a way to create electricity. Then, why not explore our other electricity facts. We have lots of cool information on static electricity and scientists like Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell.
You can even try out our cool static electricity experiment! Electricity comes from power stations , the wind, the sun, water and seriously, even animal poop! Whoa, who would have thought that animal poop could make electricity? Electricity is a type of energy that can build up in one place or flow from one place to another. Electric current is measured in amperes , called amps for short. Electric potential energy is measured in volts. When an electric charge builds up on the surface of an object it makes static electricity.
You might have got a small electric shock, which is static electricity. This happens when an electric charge is quickly cancelled out by an opposite charge. Ever heard of direct current DC or alternating current AC? Well there is a difference between the two. DC electrons move in a single direction, while AC electrons like to shake it up a bit and change from moving backwards to forward all the time. The electricity you use in your home is AC while DC comes from things like batteries.
Do you know? Well it actually comes from burning coal. Coal is burnt in furnaces which heats the water until it becomes steam. This then spins turbines which are attached to generators. The first power plant, opened in New York City in
0コメント