6 Light and Electricity

6.6 Electricity
You are going to:
• learn the definitions of voltage, current and resistance and
know what units they are measured in
• explore the relationship between voltage, current and
resistance
• apply your understanding of these concepts to everyday life.

Getting started Key words

What does high voltage mean? amp

Why might this be dangerous? battery
Why should children not play in a high voltage area? conductor
current
filament
mains
ohm
rating
resistance
supply
volt
voltage
voltmeter

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Voltage
Voltage is a measure of how much energy is transferred to electrical
charges by the cell, battery or power supply. The bigger the voltage, the
bigger the force exerted on the charges and the faster they will move.
Voltage is measured in units called volts. The symbol for volts is V.
Voltage is related to the electrical energy supplied to a circuit by the
cell, battery or power supply. It is linked to energy, but it is
not the same as energy. We can add cells together in series
to make a battery to increase the voltage. For example, if
you put a 3 V buzzer into a circuit, you need a 3 V battery
to make the buzzer work. You can make a 3 V battery by
joining two 1.5 V cells in series.
Most cells supply 1.5 V. A battery is two or more cells
connected in series. Batteries commonly supply 6 V, 9 V
or 12 V. Each of the cells or batteries in this picture has a
different voltage.
The sockets found on the walls of buildings supply a mains
voltage. Mains in this context means an electrical supply
that comes from a power station or generator of some kind.
In most countries the mains voltage is between 220 and 240 V.
In some countries, the mains voltage is 110 or 120 V. The next
picture shows some mains sockets from different countries.

Sometimes, we refer to the source of energy in a circuit as the supply.

The supply could be a cell, a battery, a power supply or the mains.
This diagram shows circuit symbols for a battery made from two cells,
a battery made from many cells, and a 240 V mains supply.
Voltage is also linked to the energy changed by components in a circuit.
For example, lamps change electrical energy into light and thermal
energy. Most components have a voltage rating. 240 V

The lamps used in schools for electrical experiments are often rated at
3 V or 6 V. The rating tells us the maximum voltage that can be used.

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Voltage is measured using a voltmeter.

This picture shows a digital voltmeter, an analogue V
voltmeter and the circuit symbol for a voltmeter.
The mains voltage that power companies provide to
houses is high so that there is a lot of energy transferred
to the electrons and so it can be dangerous if you touch
the wires or there is a fault. Power lines and electricity substations can
have voltages of thousands of volts and can kill you even if you just go
close so they should always be avoided.
Lightning strikes when storm clouds build up such a massive voltage,
around 300 million volts that the air itself acts as a conductor. The
charges have so much energy transferred to them that they can cause
burns.

Questions
1 You have two cells one is labeled 1.5 V and the other 3 V. Which one
should you use to make a torch bulb glow brighter? Explain why.
2 How many 1.5-volt cells would you need to put together to make a
9 volt battery?
3 Why is mains electricity in houses more dangerous than cells or
batteries?
4 Azaan has kicked his ball into an electric substation. He is about to
climb over the fence to get it but sees a sign that says Danger High
Voltage. Azaan says that it will be OK as long as he doesn’t touch
the cables. Is he correct?

Current
Look at the circuit in the picture.
When you close the switch, the lamp lights.
A cell stores chemical energy that can be changed to cell
electrical energy in a circuit. A battery contains two
or more cells joined together.
The cell in the circuit has two connections, called
terminals. All cells, batteries, power supplies and
many other components have two terminals.
The terminals are labeled with + and − symbols, switch lamp
meaning positive (+) and negative (−).
What happens to make the lamp light?

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You can see these symbols in the photograph of these

three cells.
The photograph below shows one of the batteries from an
electric car. You can see that the battery is made from many cells.
When connected into a circuit, the negative terminal of a cell,
battery or power supply pushes electrons around in the wires.
The flow of electrons in the circuit is called current.
The current is a measure of the rate at which electric charge
flows through a circuit. The bigger the charge that passes
a point in the circuit every second, the bigger the current.
Current is measured in units called Amps. The symbol for amp
is A. Note that the current is not always a measure of how fast
the charges are moving, but the number of charges passing a
point every second. If you think of a narrow fast-flowing stream, the
water molecules are travelling much faster than in a large, slow-flowing
river, but more water molecules pass by every second in the large river
than in the fast stream.

flow of
electrons

This is one battery pack from an electric car. Many of The flow of current in a circuit is the movement of electrons
these are connected together to give hundreds of cells. around the circuit.

Questions
1 What do we mean by the term electrical current?
2 Why is it not always true to say that a bigger current means the
electrons are moving faster?

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Activity 6.6.1
Modelling electron flow
In this activity, you will use a model to show how current flows in a circuit.
Work in groups of four to six.

You will need:

• a ball of string • scissors • coloured tape or coloured marker pen
Safety
Do not pull string quickly through your hands as it can cause burns.
1 Tie the ends of the string together to form a large loop. The loop must be long
enough to be held by all the people in the group. Attach coloured tape or make
coloured marks on the string at equally spaced intervals. The intervals should be
about 10 cm long.
2 In your group, stand in a circle facing toward the centre of the circle.
3 Each person should hold the loop of string in front of them in both hands, so the
string forms a circle. Hold the string so that it is quite tight but can move.
4 The people in the group are the components in the circuit. One person is the cell.
The person who is the cell must pull the string around through the hands of the
other group members. The other group members can be components such as
lamps or buzzers.
5 Watch how the string moves. Use the coloured marks to see the movement of
the string.
Questions
Discuss these questions in your group.
1 What part of the circuit made the string move?
2 When the string started to move, was the speed the same all the way around the
circuit or different?
3 Was it possible for the string to be moving in one part of the circuit and not moving
in another part?
4 Name the particles represented by the coloured marks.
5 In what ways does this model:
a correctly represent what happens in a circuit
b not correctly represent what happens in a circuit?

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Think like a scientist

Making predictions about current
In this task, you will make and test predictions about the flow of current in a circuit.
Work as a whole class.

You will need:

• a power supply or battery • wires longer than 2 meters, or many short wires that
can be connected end to end • 4 identical lamps that can operate in series from the
power supply

1 Make a circuit with one lamp close to the negative terminal of the power supply.
2 Place the next lamp several meters away from the first lamp, and another lamp a
similar distance from this lamp.
3 Place the fourth lamp close to the positive terminal of the power supply.
Do not switch on the lamps yet.
Questions
Discuss these questions as a whole class.
1 What will happen when the power supply is switched on?
Will all the lamps come on at the same time?
If not, in what order will they light?
2 a Is this prediction testable?
b What name is given to a testable prediction?
Now switch on and see what happens.
3 Describe what you observed.
4 Try to explain what happened in terms of the flow of electrons.

Self-assessment
What did you learn about current in a circuit? List as many things as possible.
Is there anything you’re still unsure about current in a circuit?

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Resistance
Resistance is a measure of how easy or difficult it is for electrons to move
though a material.
Conductors, such as copper, have very low resistance. This means that
the electrons are easy to push through the copper wire. So a small
voltage is sufficient to create a large current. Insulators,
such as most plastics, have very high resistance to
the electrons moving through them. So it is almost
impossible to generate a large current which is why they
are used to electrically insulate wires and devices.
We can measure the resistance of a material by
measuring the ratio of the applied voltage to the
current produced. Think of this as how much force
is exerted on the charges compared to how much they
moved.
Resistance = Voltage / Current
So a low voltage across a low resistance material would
produce a high current and a high resistance material
would need a high voltage to produce even a low
current.
Resistance is measured in units called ohms. Ohms have the symbol
which is the Greek letter omega.
A 100 m length of copper wire, for example, can have a resistance of
0.5–1.0 .
A 1 cm length of some plastics have a resistance of over a
1 000 000 000 000 .
Resistance slows the flow of electrons, so a higher resistance lowers
the current for a given voltage.
Copper wire is designed to have very low resistance so the wires in a
circuit affect the current as little as possible.
The resistance of insulators – such as the plastic around this copper
wire – is so high that they do
not allow current to flow at all under most circumstances.
Some conductors are designed to have a high resistance. Inside some
lamps, there is a small wire called a filament. The filament has a high
resistance. When current flows through the filament, thermal energy is
transferred. There is so much thermal energy that the filament glows and
emits light.

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As resistance makes it difficult for current to flow, the greater the

resistance in a circuit, the smaller the current in the circuit.
Water has quite a high resistance, but this is a lot lower than the
resistance of dry air, so water is dangerous around electrical appliances.
Sea water has a lower resistance than water so is particularly dangerous.
If you get an electric shock, an electrical current passing through your
heart can stop your heart from beating, but electricity can also be used
to start a stopped heart by using a defibrillator.

Activity 6.6.2
Working out resistance
In this activity, you will work out the resistance of different components.
Work in groups of two or three.

You will need:

• cell or battery • range of different components (such as a lamp, a buzzer
and a resistor) • ammeter • voltmeter • switch • wires • connectors

Safety
Ask your teacher to check your circuits. Switch off before changing components.
Method
1 Connect each component in turn to the cell or battery.
2 Measure the current through the component and the voltage across the component.
Questions
1 Draw a circuit diagram to show how this is done for one of your components.
2 Record your voltage and current results for each component in a table.
3 a Use the results to calculate the resistance of each component. Show your working.
b Add another column to the table for the resistance values. Remember to include
the unit in the column header.
4 State which of your components had
a the highest resistance
b the lowest resistance.

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Questions
1 Why do we use good conductors for electrical cables?
2 Why is fishing under power lines with a carbon fishing rod more
dangerous than using a fibreglass rod?
Hint: Carbon is a good conductor of electricity and fibreglass is an
insulator.
3 Why is copper used to make wires?
4 Why are wires coated with plastic?

Summary checklist
I can define voltage and state the units it is measured in.
I can explain how to make a battery out of cells to give the required
voltage.
I can explain why high voltages can be dangerous.
I can define current and state the units it is measured in.
I can define resistance and state the units it is measured in.
I can measure the resistance of something by calculating the ratio of
the applied voltage and the measured current.
I can explain the difference between conductors and insulators and
their uses.
I can describe how electrons move in circuits.
I can understand how to work out the direction that electrons move.

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 6.7 Electrical power at home

6.7 Electrical power at home

You are going to:
• learn the definition of electrical power and its units
• understand why knowing the power of electrical devices is
important
• rank appliances by their power from high to low
• learn about earth wire, fuses and circuit breakers
• learn how to choose the correct fuse for an appliance
• learn about the dangers of the incorrect use of electricity and
precautions you can take to make it safer.

Getting started Key words

Name the particles that flow inside wires when current flows. adapter
What happens to the speed of these particles as current circuit breaker
increases? cord
State the unit of current. earth wire
electrical power
electrical shock
fuse
plug
short circuit
socket
watt

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Measuring electrical power

Electrical power is a measure of the rate at which energy
is transferred by a device. Electrical power is measured in
watts with the symbol W. The more powerful an appliance
is, the more energy it transfers every second. To save
energy we can try to switch to lower-power devices or to
use high-powered devices less.
Old-style filament lamps can transfer about five times as
Appliances have a label with their characteristics.
much energy per second as modern LED bulbs. So you
can run five LED bulbs for the same cost as a single filament bulb.
You have to pay for electrical energy so it is important that you know
which devices cost the most to run. An LED bulb has a power rating of
15 watts and an electrical kettle has about 3000 watts. So the kettle costs
20 times as much to run. Manufacturers attach labels to appliances so
consumers know their characteristics in terms of electrical consumption
before buying them.

Activity 6.7.1
Appliances power rating
Electrical devices always have a label that tells you the power of that appliance.
Put these devices in order of what you think their power output is:
• an electric kettle • a LED bulb
• a mobile phone • a small torch
• a TV
Now check with the other groups in class. Do they have similar results? Would you like to
change the order of the items on your list?
Next, draw a table and find the power of as many electrical devices as you can in your
home or school.
Safety
Be very careful and make sure appliances are switched off at the plug or disconnected
before you look for the label.

Appliance Power

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Continued
Peer-assessment
For each of these statements, decide on how confident your team is.
Give your team 5 if you are very confident and 1 if you are not confident at all.
• We listed the appliances correctly.
• My partner and I found at least three new appliances at home/school for out table.
• We know how much electricity several home appliances use.

• Now that you know how much electricity some home

appliances use, what can you do to save electricity at
home?

Domestic Electricity
Electricity in the home can be dangerous as it uses much higher voltages
than cells used in portable devices. It needs to be so in order to operate
appliances like kettles and toasters that have high power. Mains
electricity is around 230 Volts and cells are usually 1.5 Volts. This means
that mains voltages can push much higher currents through wires than
cells can. These high currents can cause fatal electrical shocks and faults
with mains electrical devices can also cause fires. There are some safety
features used in wiring houses that can help protect both people and
appliances.

Fuses
Fuses are thin pieces of wire that
get hot when a large current passes
through them causing them to break
and so prevent the flow of current from
continuing through the circuit. Fuses
have different current ratings often 3,5
and 13 amps. A 3-amp fuse would allow
currents up to 3 amps through it without
blowing, but it would blow if 4 amps
were to pass through it. Fuses protect
the appliances from too high a current
damaging them.
Different types of fuses.

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Activity 6.7.2
Choose a fuse
The power of an appliance allows us to work out what the current measured in Amps
delivered to it is. This allows us to protect the appliance from too high a voltage by using
a fuse. We want to use the fuse with a value just above the power rating, not the same as
or below. So if you had 3, 5 and 13-amp fuses and the current to an appliance is 3 Amps,
you would choose the 5-amp fuse. The 3-amp fuse would blow and the 13-amp fuse
would not blow if there was a fault before the appliance would be damaged.
If you had a choice of 3-amp, 5-amp and 13-amp fuses which would you choose for:
1 A 200 Watt TV that draws (takes) a current of 1 amp?
2 A kettle with a power output of 3kw that draws a 10-amp current?
3 A hifi system that draws 5 amps?
4 Which fuse do you think a toaster would need?
5 What would you do if the current was over 13 amps?

Circuit breakers
Circuit breakers are electrical switches that monitor the current passing
through them.
These do the same job as fuses so they ‘trip’ and cut off the electrical
supply if too high a current flows or there is an electrical fault. They
have the advantage over fuses in that they do not need to be replaced
every time there is a fault. They are also more sensitive, act faster and
more accurate than fuses and so offer better protection. However, they
cost much more than fuses.

A circuit breaker.

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The earth wire

As its name suggests, the earth wire is often connected to a copper rod
buried in the earth. It is an important safety feature as it provides a
route for a current to flow if there is a fault with the appliance where a
live wire is in contact with a metal casing. This would make the metal
casing ‘live’. If there was no earth wire the casing would give a person
who touched it an electrical shock as the current would pass through
them possibly causing an injury. With an earth wire, a large current
would flow to the ground through the earth wire. This large current
would cause the fuse or the circuit breaker protecting the circuit to
‘blow’ or ‘trip’ and so cut off the electrical supply to the device, making
it safe.

Overloading and Short

Circuits
Household circuits are designed for just
one plug to be put in each socket. Often
there are more appliances than sockets
nearby and so people often use adapters
that allow four or even more plugs to be
run off one socket. What this can do is
create a very low resistance that allows
a very high current to flow. If the circuit
is not protected correctly with fuses or
a circuit breaker then this current can Using adapters for plugging in many appliances can be dangerous.
become so large that it heats up the wire
cables causing them to melt and creating
a fire.
Can you think why short circuits are
given that name?
A short circuit occurs if the live wire,
sometimes called the hot wire, touches
the neutral wire to make a complete
circuit instead of going through the
appliance. This shorter circuit would
have almost zero resistance and so there
would be a very high current creating a
heating effect. As before, if the fuse or
circuit breaker does not work there is a
big chance of a fire. A short circuit can be dangerous.

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Electric shocks
If mains electricity flows through your
body you will get an electric shock that
could kill you. You will be badly burned,
your heart could stop beating and you
could die. Damaged electrical wiring is
one of the main causes of accidents with
electricity. Plastic insulation often wears
off the copper wires – you can get a
shock if you touch the wires.
Appliances with worn cables can cause an electric shock to the user.
Here is some practical advice for home:
1 Never place an electric wire under a carpet. When people walk on
the carpet the plastic wears off the copper wires. When bare copper
wires touch each other, electricity flows between them and this can
start a fire.
2 Never pull a plug out by pulling the cord. This damages the cord
and the wires become bare. If you handle the bare wires you could
get an electric shock.
Turn off the switch before you pull out the plug.
Grip the plug, which is made of insulating plastic, to pull the plug
out of the socket.
3 Be careful not to plug too many electrical devices into the same
socket. This can overload the socket and could give you a shock if
you touch the socket or one of the plugs. It could also cause a fire.

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Activity 6.7.3
Predict safe and unsafe use of appliances
1 Predict what could happen to the person
in the picture.
2 Copy and complete these sentences to
explain why this could happen.
3 He is pushing a into the holes of
the when the power is on. The
electricity could flow from the
in the wall to the screwdriver in his
. The wires and screwdriver are
made of which is a of
electricity.
4 Look at the picture of a person in the bathroom. Why should the person dry their
hands before they use the switch?

Self-assessment
Explain the difference between a 1.5 V cell and mains electricity to a member of your
family.

• What did you learn about using electricity safely at home?

• Do you think what you learned today will be useful?

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Think like a scientist

Create a resource that shows people how to use electricity safely

You will need:

• materials for writing and drawing • internet access for information and visual content

In groups of three or four students, you need to create a resource about using electricity
safely. The resource can be a poster, a leaflet, or a PowerPoint presentation. You will need
to include as many of the safety points that you have learned so far.
Procedure
1 Discuss with your group what items you would like to include in your resource and
prepare a list.
2 Do some online research to get more information about the items on your list.
3 Decide the kind of resource that would be best for your list.
4 Create the resource by assigning each member of your group to create at least one
item from the list.
5 Present your resource to the rest of your class.

Peer-assessment
Think about how your group did this task. Give points from 1 to 5 for the following
evaluation questions.
• Did you work well as a group?
• Did all members of your group contribute with ideas?
• Did all members of your group get involved in the activity?
• Was your resource successful?
Now check to see if the other members of your group agree with your rating.

• Why is it important that you understand the dangers of

electricity?

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Questions
1 What is the definition of electrical power?
2 What is a fuse?
3 What is a short circuit and why is it dangerous?
4 What are the advantages and disadvantages of circuit breakers
compared to fuses?
5 How does an earth wire work?
6 Why is it dangerous to have multiple appliances on the same
socket?

Summary checklist
I can give the definition of electrical power and its units.
I understand why knowing the power of electrical devices is
important.
I can explain the uses of fuses and compare them to circuit breakers.
I can explain why domestic (mains) electricity can be dangerous.
I can choose the correct fuse for an appliance.
I can explain the purpose of the earth wire in keeping you safe.

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