What makes the electric current streaming through electronic devices actually being used and convert it into something else like movement, light etc? What makes it being consumed by the device?
If electric current is a solid matter, and solid matter being consumed, it wont just disappear without a trace, it would create a waste right? In this case its probably heat.
I have zero knowledge about electricity and this just struck my brain.
I hope you guys understand what i am trying to say
In: Engineering
Electrical current is not a type of solid matter or fluid, but the flow of electrons. Tiny parts of an atom that basically “jump” from atom to atom when pushed by an electromagnetic field. Naturally these electrons will move from areas of high voltage to areas of low voltage, and on the way this flow can be used to do other kinds of work.
you can think of it sort of like water flowing down a hill. You can use the energy from the water by putting other things in its path, like a water wheel. However, when the water reaches the bottom of the hill, it will just sit there and you won’t be able to use it to turn another water wheel unless you move it back up to the top of the hill.
In the same way, the energy of moving electrons can be converted into different types of energy by various devices. Motors convert it into motion energy, light bulbs and screens convert it into light energy, and computers can use it for calculations by directing the flow through billions of tiny pathways. In addition, all electrical wires and devices have some resistance, which is basically the electrical equivalent of friction. This causes some of the energy to be converted into heat.
However, no matter what the energy is being used for, once it reaches 0 volts the electrons can’t do any more work because they’ve reached the “bottom of the hill”. Then you will need to use something else to add more energy back in, effectively pushing it back up the hill. batteries do this using chemical reactions, and generators do it by turning motion energy into electrical current. The electrons never disappear though, so this process can be repeated over and over again. Imagine a river flowing down a hill, pushing a water wheel, and a pump at the bottom moving all the water back up to the top. None of the water is ever used up and it can keep going on forever until the pump runs out of fuel.
So in a nutshell, electrical devices don’t actually use up anything. they’re basically letting something fall from a high energy state to a low energy state, pushing on other things as it goes.
Electricity isn’t really solid matter, I mean, it’s carried by moving electrons, but it’s more like potential energy. You know how when you lift a ball, then drop it, it just falls? That’s kind of what electricity is like. And just like the movement of a falling object can be harnessed to do work, electricity can do the same.
To turn it into light, you either use it to make something hot (incandescence), or you use it to energize certain types of semiconductors which then emit light (LEDs)
To turn it into movement, usually you use electromagnetics to apply a force to a piece of magnetic metal (i.e. a motor).
Yes, almost every time you use electricity, waste is involved, usually as the creation of unwanted heat. Superconductors can avoid this, but they are only useful in very specific scenarios.
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The thing used up is electric energy (which by itself says nothing), a useful picture might be that of a spring (or more concrete, think of one of these wind up-toys – those contain springs). The basic idea is that you wind up/expand the spring and “store energy in it” which you can then use to make the toy walk (or lift something with a mere spring). There’s no matter being used up. This is the essence of how electricity works, just that you don’t have a mechanical spring, but separated charges. In practice, it’s a little more complicated (e.g. batteries use something called a “galvanic cell” to create the power which involves some electro-chemistry), but that’s the basic idea.
Electric current is just a bunch of electrons, they will eventually reach their final destination and stop moving. The electrons themselves don’t disappear.
Electric power is the power delivered by these electrons, it gets converted into sound, or heat, or movement.
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