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About This Quiz
Ah, electricity. We just can't live without it, especially now that we're in the digital age. But how much do you know about it, its history, and safety tips around it? Take this electrifying quiz and find out!
Electricity's basic particle — if you can call it that — is this building block of matter.
Electron
Electrons are a part of atoms, but electricity is not really about electrons but about how they move. When electrons interact and move across many atoms, electricity happens. Good to know!
Neutron
Proton
Quark
The legendary story of Benjamin Franklin, the kite, and lightning wouldn't be complete with this object.
Wind
Ben Franklin's shoes
The string
A key
Most stories say that lightning hit the key, and then the shock traveled down to Benjamin Franklin. But that would have killed him. What probably happened was that as he drew his hand near the key, it gave him a spark from stored electricity. Sounds more sensible!
Aside from trying to get himself zapped while flying a kite, Benjamin Franklin invented this important tool for buildings.
Electric heaters
Wind vanes
Lightning rod
Lightning rods aren't only put at the highest point of the building, they are grounded to the soil around the building with a conductive metal wire. When lightning hits the rod, the charge goes through the ground - not the building. Clever!
Water pipes
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This inventor helped create the big boom of electrical use in our civilization, by putting up the first commercial power station.
Henry Ford
Louis Stevenson
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison built the world's first electric power plant. It was established in 1882, and operated for eight years. Such a pioneer, this guy.
Nikola Tesla
Our body uses small pulses of electricity, too. This important organ uses it to keep working with the right rhythm.
The liver
The heart
The heart uses electrical pulses to keep it pumping correctly. The electrocardiogram machine can read all these pulses. Yeah, we humans are electrifying indeed!
The lungs
The spleen
When you use a power switch to turn on the lights, you do this.
You close the circuit
When you flick the light switch, the wires that lead to the light are connected to the rest of the electrical network in your house. It closes the circuit, so that electrons can move in and out of the lighting elements. Interesting, huh?
You create a spark
You bring up the voltage
You bypass the safeties
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Electricity is energy. Can you create more of it?
No, just turn one form of energy into another.
It's the law of the universe: you cannot create or destroy energy, but you can turn mechanical energy, like spinning the turbines and generators, to make mechanical energy into electricity. In solar panels, you can turn chemical reactions into electricity.
We do not have the technology yet.
Only with special equipment
Yes, but it takes a lot of power
These kitchen appliances are the most power-hungry in the home.
Microwave ovens
Refrigerators
Refrigerators are the power hogs of the kitchen. Sure, hot plates and microwave ovens need a lot of power to zap and cook things, but refrigerators — and freezers — are on all the time. This makes the old icebox sound like a good idea sometimes, eh?
Oven toasters
Electric hot plates
Why is it a good idea to unplug appliances and gear you are not using?
Because it makes more power available for the kitchen
Because you won't overheat the gadgets
Because they still use power on standby
They won't suck your blood, but power vampires are devices that use a lot of power in standby mode. Even if you aren't using them, computers, TVs, and even phone chargers are putting watts on your bill when they're plugged in. Unplug and save money!
Because you can use the heater to warm you up anyway
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When your electric current is not moving, it is called this.
Capped charge
Neutral charge
Static electricity
When you touch someone after walking through thick carpet, you build up static electricity in you, and the potential to release a lot of electricity through a spark. That happens when you touch someone else. All that stored electricity has to go somewhere!
Frozen electricity
Lightning, for all of its power, is really this simple thing.
Natural power generator
Natural static shock
Lightning happens when weather disturbances cause wind and heat to collide in the upper atmosphere. Electrons move around the atoms in the air. When the charge gets high enough... ZAP!
Natural fuse
Natural solar effect
Before the telephone, this was the first communication network that used electricity.
Lighthouses
Radio
Electric telegraph
The electric telegraph was a simple electronic circuit that you could turn on and off really fast. This allowed operators to tap Morse code in "dots" and "dashes." For a time, this was the way people sent messages to faraway places.
Tesla coils
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When you have a material like copper wire that lets electricity flow freely through it, this is what you call it.
Fuse
Transformer
Conductor
Conductors are materials that let electrons pass through them easily. If materials don't allow electrons to pass through, they are called insulators.
Neutral material
Ideally, electricity can travel at this speed.
The speed of light
Electricity naturally travels at the speed of light. Any delay depends on the material in which it travels.
The speed of sound
The speed of air
The speed of clouds
What is the biggest fuel source for generating electricity?
Oil
Coal
Coal is still the biggest fuel option. Many power plants across the world rely on burning it to run turbines that are hooked up to generators. Coal plants are also top polluters, but renewable energy sources have to catch up before we can stop using coal.
Geothermal
Nuclear
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This dam in China is the biggest hydroelectric project in the world.
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is big on electricity - about 20,000 megawatts. It's named after narrow valleys with small rivers running through them. And these supply water to the main river.
Yellow River Dam
Songhua River Dam
Mekong River Dam
What do you need to transform high voltage to the right voltage for your appliances?
Circuit breakers
Fuse boxes
Transformers
Transformers help change the high voltage needed for electricity to travel far. It turns that high charge into a less-deadly one with which your appliances can run. Just don't drop the radio into the bathtub!
Grid stations
Electricity is not seen as a primary energy source, but a secondary one. Why is that?
Because you can't run your private power source
Because you need a big power grid
Because it isn't natural
Because you convert another kind of energy
You have to convert the mechanical or chemical energy. Once that energy makes a chemical reaction that makes electrons move in large numbers, then you have electricity. But you can't get electricity directly. Got it?
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Electricity was once used for this controversial treatment.
Acupuncture
Shock therapy
Shock therapy was once used to deal with many health and psychological issues.
ECG readings
Wart removal
One of the first kitchen appliances that used electricity was this breakfast regular.
Toaster
Once electricity could heat up metal coils, it was easy to build a toaster. Even if you couldn't control the heat, you always had the pop-up timer. Ding!
Stove
Water heater
Waffle iron
We all live with electricity - or do we? How many people do you think have no access to electrical power?
1 billion
Despite our technological advances, more than 1 billion people have no access to electricity. This is either because they are poor, or there is a lack of wiring or power plants where they live.
500 million
250 million
750 million
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The traditional light bulb is the symbol of electricity, but, on average, how much electricity does it take for a bulb to power up.
Below or at 10%
Light bulbs convert at most 10% of the power they use, on average, to light. The rest becomes heat. On the other hand, new light bulb technologies make sure you use less power per bulb, at almost the same brightness, and longer lifetimes.
25%
almost 35%
50% on average
AC and DC are different because of this.
It's about how current moves in the wire
Alternating current (AC) changes direction in the wire in a regular beat. Direct current (DC) is like a fire hose, current only goes one way. Most appliances use AC. Batteries are a DC source of power.
It is about 110 or 220 volts
It is about negative or positive charges
It is about heat
We always use the term volts, but when we measure electrical usage, we use this.
Ohms
Amperes
Kilowatt-hours
Kilowatt-hours tell the electric company how much you've used per hour for the month. A watt measures how much energy was used to generate power, and that is figured over an hour. Volts measure the difference in electrical potential. Amperes are about the charge itself.
Farads
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What is the one thing that you need, along with a lot of copper wire, to generate electricity in a generator or turbine?
Hand crank
Oil
Magnets
Magnets help align and influence atoms so that their electrons also shift, creating an electric current. If you have large enough magnets and enough copper wire, you can create power plants to serve entire communities.
Coal
Electricity only happens when electrons move in an atom, so this is the natural state.
Atoms are positively charged
Positive and negative charges are the same
Atoms of various materials usually have a neutral charge. This means they have the same amounts of positive and negative charges in them, or the same amount of electrons and protons. You can't get a shock unless there are a lot of moving electrons.
Atoms are still negatively charged
Atoms do not move
When atoms are negatively charged, they do this.
They turn into another element
They collect more and more electrons
They explode
They shed the extra electrons to another atom or material
When an atom has too many electrons, it gives these electrons out to other materials that can take them. That's what electricity is: movement of electrons between atoms. Now you know!
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What happens when you have the same positive or negative charge in two atoms?
They turn into a power source
Nothing happens
They combine to make a bigger atom
They stay away from each other
When two atoms have the same amount of negative or positive charges, they repel each other. This is why electricity is always looking for an object that has a lower negative charge to go into - like the ground.
You have a few birds sitting on a power line. They aren't dropping dead because of this.
They aren't standing on two wires.
As long as the birds don't have one foot on each wire, they are safe. This is why linemen have to be careful not to touch both wires at the same time.
They are immune to electricity
They have little bird-gloves
They have rubbery feet
Gravity and electricity are similar, except for this.
Gravity can produce light
Electricity can bend light
Electricity can repel
An electric field can repel things, gravity cannot. Electrical fields can repel and attract positive or negative charges, depending on their own charge. Gravity simply attracts, depending on how much mass you have.
Gravity can have an electric charge
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This is the reason why we use rubber tubing for electrical wires.
Rubber prevents electrons from crossing over to other atoms
Rubber tubing makes sure that electrical charges will not jump from one wire to the other. That is because rubber is an insulator. It prevents electrical charges from transferring from one set of atoms to another.
To magnify electrical charge
Turn DC into AC
Make the wires cooler
Generating electricity is now moving to a new age, like this kind of plant in Abilene, Texas.
Wind power plant
The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Abilene, Texas is one of the largest wind farms in the world. It covers 92 square miles, and the central area has more than 400 wind turbines.
Solar energy plant
Tidal energy plant
Geothermal plant
This is why some electronic parts are called capacitors.
They have electrical fields that can store, or change, how electricity goes through them
Capacitors have many uses. Some can act like temporary batteries, while the real batteries are changed. Some can keep voltage as a steady rate. Others can even emit a small light. Most capacitors are small, and are used in electronics.
They protect devices from blowing up
They do not allow electricity to pass
They do nothing but protect other parts from the electrical charge in them.
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When recharging electronic devices, what is the best charge percentage before you unplug them?
100%
50%
75%
90%
Since you are not sure if your device or charger has an effective automatic cut-off when it charges, it's a good idea to unplug your device once you hit about 90% of your charge capacity. It's also a good idea to charge before you hit 0%. Your gadgets will thank you for that.
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