How do YOU understand electricity?

[luken93]

Currently in yr 11, and doing the topic of electricity.

I get the flow of electrons and kind of understand the voltage in theory

But as far as amps and measuring volts/amps on a circuit, have you only learnt the theory behind it or do you use analogies?

for voltage we use the analogy of 5 lanes on a freeway going into 1, but thats just our way

just wanna hear from everyone else

[the.watchman]

Our teacher uses the water cycle as an analogy, the battery is the sun (gives the water potential energy in evaporation), and thinking about rivers, you can draw parallels between current and flow rate, particularly when the water splits into two smaller streams which join again later.

I don't know any others, but if there's something better out there, I'm quite interested to know!

[mark_alec]

Current is the number of charged particles that pass per unit time.
Voltage is the energy that the charged particles have per unit charge.

In keeping with the road metaphor, current is the number of cars passing by a point per second, voltage is the kinetic energy per car.

[luken93]

Our teacher uses the water cycle as an analogy, the battery is the sun (gives the water potential energy in evaporation),

Wow thats umm, heavy compared to mine haha?

and thinking about rivers, you can draw parallels between current and flow rate, particularly when the water splits into two smaller streams which join again later.

Yeh thats how i kind of pictured it, but then when it doubles before the river i was like wtf?

the problem is our teacher loves us knowing the conceptual understanding however doing some questions would be good as far as looking at multiple resistors and parallel circuits etc

[the.watchman]

Well think of it this way, each electron is a paper boy, each with 6 papers to deliver.
They each have to follow a network of routes (the circuit )
Now imagine that the paper boys are leaving the newsagent at a steady rate (like 2 a minute )
The paper boys split up along the routes with parallel circuits BUT THEIR VOLTAGE (no. of papers) is still the same
Then when the different sections join up, the number of paper boys is back to the original, yes?

I hope this made sense, I made it up on the spot

[m@tty]

Not bad...

[appianway]

Our physics teacher in year 11 used the same analogy, but with Safeway trucks...

[luken93]

Well think of it this way, each electron is a paper boy, each with 6 papers to deliver.
They each have to follow a network of routes (the circuit )
Now imagine that the paper boys are leaving the newsagent at a steady rate (like 2 a minute )
The paper boys split up along the routes with parallel circuits BUT THEIR VOLTAGE (no. of papers) is still the same
Then when the different sections join up, the number of paper boys is back to the original, yes?

I hope this made sense, I made it up on the spot

i work at a newsagency as a matter of fact haha.
i might upload some pics to this thread tomoz if i can be bothered haha

[the.watchman]

Well think of it this way, each electron is a paper boy, each with 6 papers to deliver.
They each have to follow a network of routes (the circuit )
Now imagine that the paper boys are leaving the newsagent at a steady rate (like 2 a minute )
The paper boys split up along the routes with parallel circuits BUT THEIR VOLTAGE (no. of papers) is still the same
Then when the different sections join up, the number of paper boys is back to the original, yes?

I hope this made sense, I made it up on the spot

i work at a newsagency as a matter of fact haha.
i might upload some pics to this thread tomoz if i can be bothered haha

LOL, well I hope it helps

You could incorporate resistance as potholes on the roads along which paper boys are bound to drop papers...
But that's taking it too far.

[simonhu81292]

Well think of it this way, each electron is a paper boy, each with 6 papers to deliver.
They each have to follow a network of routes (the circuit )
Now imagine that the paper boys are leaving the newsagent at a steady rate (like 2 a minute )
The paper boys split up along the routes with parallel circuits BUT THEIR VOLTAGE (no. of papers) is still the same
Then when the different sections join up, the number of paper boys is back to the original, yes?

I hope this made sense, I made it up on the spot

nice ....
i thought of postman.. doing his job
lol

[luken93]

Well think of it this way, each electron is a paper boy, each with 6 papers to deliver.
They each have to follow a network of routes (the circuit )
Now imagine that the paper boys are leaving the newsagent at a steady rate (like 2 a minute )
The paper boys split up along the routes with parallel circuits BUT THEIR VOLTAGE (no. of papers) is still the same
Then when the different sections join up, the number of paper boys is back to the original, yes?

I hope this made sense, I made it up on the spot

i work at a newsagency as a matter of fact haha.
i might upload some pics to this thread tomoz if i can be bothered haha

LOL, well I hope it helps

You could incorporate resistance as potholes on the roads along which paper boys are bound to drop papers...
But that's taking it too far.

i also thought of the airport, and the resistance is the security xrays which u have to go thru one by one
On one side of the resistor, there will be heaps of people
and on the other side, there will be hardly anybody
so the difference in the amount of people from one side to the other is great

but if you had 2 xray machines then the voltage would be halved?
therefore the amps would be doubled before they entered the parallel lines?

correct me if im wrong

[the.watchman]

Be careful, voltage is the energy/whatever in each person, the number of people has to be constant
Maybe their speed is slow up to the x-ray machines, but fast on the other side to get away from the guards?
But then that's the inverse...

[luken93]

Be careful, voltage is the energy/whatever in each person, the number of people has to be constant
Maybe their speed is slow up to the x-ray machines, but fast on the other side to get away from the guards?
But then that's the inverse...

im confused now
we were taught that voltage is the measure of the difference in charge seperation between the 2 points?

[kyzoo]

Electricity = Pikachu = Weird blue plasma that comes out of your body and can burn other people

[luken93]

There you go just made some quick ones.
If you could explain what/why Voltage and amps are what they are at the points i've chosen

thanks

im gettin more and more confused by the second