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
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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