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ZatsWhy (Answers) - E-lec-tricity

Can you get electricity from a pickle?
How does energy get to a light bulb?

Can you get electricity from a pickle?
Well, Michael, you can’t get electricity from a pickle, but you can get electricity through a pickle. Electricity is really a flow of very small parts of an atom called “electrons.” Electrons are one of the three parts (what scientists call “particles”) that make up an atom. The other two, “neutrons” and “protons,” are bunched together in the middle of the atom in a ball that scientists call the “nucleus.” Not electrons though; electrons are outside the nucleus, and they can jump over from that atom to the one next to it sometimes. Electricity is made of electrons one after the other, moving from one atom to the next one and the next one and the next one. The electrons are moving because they’re trying to balance out an area of atoms with too many electrons and an area of atoms that don’t have enough. In order to flow like this, though, the electrons need four things. First, there has to be a place with electrons to spare – a group of atoms that have way too many electrons. Second, they need a place to go – a group of atoms that don’t have enough electrons. Third, the electrons need a way to get there – a bridge between these two areas made up of atoms that will give up and get electrons easily enough to let the stream of electrons flow. Finally, the two areas of atoms and the bridge between them have to be one whole path (what scientists call a “circuit”), with no breaks. If the circuit has a break in it or it’s made up of something that won’t be part of the electron flow, then the electrons can’t balance out the two groups of atoms and electricity won’t go through. Now when scientists say something is a “good conductor” they mean that it is made up of atoms that help the electrons flow from one atom to the next to the next. Wires that carry electricity are made of metal because metal atoms are excellent conductors. The electrons flow over them really easily. It turns out that the salt in a dill pickle is a pretty good conductor, though not nearly so good as metal. If a scientist (even a young scientist with the right adult help) makes a circuit with a dill pickle and puts enough electricity into the flow, the pickle will heat up and even start to glow! Here are a couple of links that give you some more details: http://www.valleysoft.net/JCowens/ElectricalPickle.html and http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/pickle/. Electricity is a fun and interesting part of science that is around us every day. Thanks for a fine question, Michael.
by Jeff | Mon Mar 4 15:28:48 PST 2002 | Back to Top

How does energy get to a light bulb?
I bet many, many people have wondered the same thing, Maria! If you read the answer to Michael’s question (above) “Can you get electricity from a pickle?” you can learn about how electricity is actually a flow of small particles (parts of an atom) called “electrons.” The electrons flow because they are trying to even out an area where the atoms have too many electrons and an area where the atoms don’t have enough electrons. The atoms flow over a “conductor,” the word scientists use to describe a material made up of atoms that will give and get electrons easily. The best conductors (like metal) are like conveyor belts, and the electrons flow right over these types of atoms. Sometimes the electrons making up the flow of electricity (scientists call this flow the “electric current”) have to go through material made up of atoms that don’t want to get and give up electrons so easily. Scientists use the term “resistance” to describe the difficulty the electrons have flowing through these kinds of materials, and they call materials like this in a circuit “resistors.” When a light bulb is put in a circuit with electricity flowing through it, the electrons flow easily through all of the light bulb except the little thread-like part (the “filament”) inside the glass. The filament is a resistor, and the electrons have a hard time getting through to go on the rest of their way through the circuit. The electrons don’t stop completely, though. The filament does get and give up some electrons, but the electrons forcing their way to the other side have to give up energy to get through. The energy the electrons give up makes the filament get so hot that it glows, and the light bulb gives off light and heat. I hope this answer helps, Maria.
by Jeff | Mon Mar 4 15:25:51 PST 2002 | Back to Top

What is WhyizZat all about?

WhyizZat is a fun site to learn about science and ask science questions. My name is Jeff, and I have been interested in science since I was in about the 4th grade. I like all kinds of science subjects, including how our bodies work, what makes up the world around us, what the stars and planets are like. I'm not a scientist myself, but I've learned a lot about science and what I don't know I can usually find out.

- Jeff Koppelmaa