For example, I was listening to a podcast about hydropower, and the mentioned that the water current does what it does, and shakes these electrons free and that creates electricity, but do the h2o molecules lose an electron, or are there just a ton of free roaming electrons out I’m the world. I have no clue how it all works, do maybe my assumptions are all wrong, Thanks in advance!
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Where do the electrons fine from?
Great question. And not where you would think.
A generator does not push more electrons into the wires, the way a water pump as water to a hose.
What a generator does is push on electrons already in the wire (by use it spinning magnets). Metals have tons of electrons, and the ones on the edge of the material aren’t locked into the atom that well, which let’s the electrons move easily asking the wire.
Now if that was all, you’re spot on, this would still cause a problem. The electrons in the metal in the generator would be pushed out, causing a large charge to build up, and possibly arcing and discharging. This is “static electricity” when you sick yourself, or if you cause a short in subs equipment.
But…
Electrical wiring is arranged into a circuit, a loop. So when an electron is pushed out of the generator, it goes around the loop, and come back in later. It just goes in a run around the circuit.
We push one electron out, it pushes the next, and so on, until an electron at the end of the loop is pushed into the generator.
This means we never really strip enough charge it of a material to cause damage.
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