Electricity is a form of energy that occurs everywhere in nature: in space, in the

atmosphere, in atoms and molecules In animals, including man, weak electrical impulses
are transmitted from one nerve cell to the next, and they provide signals for the brain and
other parts of the body.

Electric power runs electric motors in factories, provides street lighting in cities, and runs
appliances and lights in homes. It also plays an important role in many industrial processes,
such as the electric-arc welding of metals.

All ordinary electrical phenomena depend on forces between electrical charges carried by
protons and electrons. Protons contain the positive charges and electrons contain the
negative charges.

Mankind began to understand electricity from simple observation of natural phenomena. In

the past 100 years or so, man learnt how to harness and use electricity. This brought about a
drastic transformation in all industrial societies.