How do LEDs make light from electricity?
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Imagine being in a room with a floor with a single step. All the floor is covered in marbles.
You start taking marbles from below the step and bring them on top of it. What will happen is that now many marbles will start to fall from the step and, in doing that, they’ll lose potential energy and will make noise. Each single marble makes its own tiny noise, all combined make a continuous, loud noise.
LEDs are made from two materials, one next to the other. When we apply a voltage, electrons flow from one material to the other. Like the marbles.
When an electron is on an atom of the first material, it has some potential energy, like a marble on top of the step.
When the electron is pushed to the other material, it loses some potential energy, like the marble falling. And, in doing so, that energy has to go somewhere: it’s released as a photon, “an element of light”, just like the marble transforms the energy from the fall into noise.
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