In the wires of electric circuits, an electron is the actual charge carrier. In this article, an electron's path through the external circuit is introduced.

Explains how photovoltaic systems work and how Texas homeowners are using them. Discusses how a homeowner can use solar energy and still be on the electricity grid system.

Generate electricity with a bar magnet! Discover the physics behind the phenomena by exploring magnets and how you can use them to make a bulb light. Java required.

A number of electrical, nuclear, solar, and wind science projects and energy activities are described on this page, with links to each activity.

Learn how heat energy can be produced by mechanical and electrical machines.

Luigi Galvani was a pioneer in the field of electrophysiology, the branch of science concerned with electrical phenomena in the body. His experiments with dissected frogs and electrical charges led him to suggest the existence of a...

A discovery by Hans Christian Orsted forever changed the way scientists think about electricity and magnetism. While preparing to perform an experiment during a lecture at the University of Copenhagen, he found that the magnetized needle...

A self-educated man with a brilliant mind, Michael Faraday was born in a hardscrabble neighborhood in London. Through the combination of insatiable curiosity and a powerful will to succeed, he transcended his austere beginnings to...

English scientist William Crookes was very innovative in his investigations with vacuum tubes and designed a variety of different types to be used in his experimental work. Crookes tubes are glass vacuum chambers that contain a positive...

Investigate how to charge objects by induction. Follow up with the suggested interactivity which helps drive home the concept of charging by induction and ends with a game. Test understanding of the concept with provided comprehension...

Explains different kinds of energy, covering kinetic, potential, gravitational, mechanical, sound, thermal, chemical, electrical, and radiant energy. Also looks at storage, transfer, and dissipation of energy. Includes a short...

What factors are important to consider in order to make informed energy decisions? In this interactive, you select one of three locations and the energy resources and then try to provide 100% of that community's electricity needs while...

Students can make a empty soda can roll with an electrically charged balloon.

In the modern world, virtually everyone is familiar with electricity as an accessible, essential form of energy. In electricity's earlier days, scientists used the buildup and release of static electricity.

William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, was one of the most eminent scientists of the nineteenth century and is best known today for inventing the international system of absolute temperature that bears his name. He made contributions to...

General Electric Building (New York)

Build circuits with resistors, light bulbs, batteries, and switches. Take measurements with the realistic ammeter and voltmeter. View the circuit as a schematic diagram, or switch to a life-like view.

Inventor Nikola Tesla is the subject of this extensive PBS site. In addition to information on Tesla's life and work, the site offers insight into the ways in which society and invention affect each other.

Read about the device used for measuring resistance in a circuit which was discovered in 1843, but had been invented a decade earlier. The inventor's name was not Wheatstone.

What four arrangements would result in the successful lighting of a lightbulb? And more importantly, what does each of the four arrangements have in common that would lead to an understanding of the two requirements of an electric...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] This lesson looks at what voltage is and how to solve problems involving voltage. Includes a simulation for exploring how charges work in an electric field.

For this physics lab students investigate whether Ohm's Law applies to common electric devices. Students submit their findings in a written report or class discussion.

An electron traveling through the wires and loads of the external circuit encounters resistance. In this tutorial, the concept of resistance is introduced. For an electron, the journey from terminal to terminal is not a direct route....

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Presents methods for solving electrical circuit problems where there is a combination of series and parallel circuit features.