Electricity

Electricity What is electricity? This question is impossible to answer because the word “Electricity” has several contradictory meanings. These different meanings are incompatible, and the contradictions confuse everyone. If you don’t understand electricity, you’re not alone. Even teachers, engineers, and scientists have a hard time grasping the concept. Obviously, electricity can’t be several different things at once. Unfortunately, we have defined the word electricity in a crazy way. Because the word electricity lacks a distinct meaning, we can never pin down the nature of electricity. In the end we are forced to declare that there is no such thing as electricity at all! Here’s a quick example to illustrate the problem. Do generators make electricity? To answer this question, consider the household light bulb. In a lamp cord the charges [electrons] sit in one place and wiggle back and forth. That’s AC or alternating current. At the same time the waves of electromagnetic fields move rapidly forward. The wave energy races along the wires as it flows from the distant generators. Now you know what electricity is!