Introduction to Electricity 7

Figure 1-7 Simple atoms that contain one and two orbiting electrons.
(a) Hydrogen atom. (b) Helium atom.

moved from one atom to the other by heat or magnetism to produce an electron
flow or electric current.
The carbon atom and the copper atom are shown in Fig. 1-8. Notice that the
carbon atom has only two shells, but has four electrons in the outer shell. The
copper atom has only one electron in the outer shell. These two atoms are very
important in electricity.

Figure 1-8 Some atoms contain more than one shell of orbiting electrons. (a) Carbon atom.
(b) Copper Atom.