Electricity
hideElectricity (from the New Latin ēlectricus, "amber-like"[a]) is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts, such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction.
In general usage, the word 'electricity' is adequate to refer to a number of physical effects. However, in scientific usage, the term is vague, and these related, but distinct, concepts are better identified by more precise terms:
Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though advances in the science were not made until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Practical applications for electricity however remained few, and it would not be until the late nineteenth century that engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed industry and society. Electricity's extraordinary versatility as a source of energy means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include transport, heating, lighting, communications, and computation. The backbone of modern industrial society is, and for the foreseeable future can be expected to remain, the use of electrical power.
For more information about Electricity, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with electricity
Physicists Demystify Utility of Power Factor Correction Devices
Dec 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- If you've seen an Internet ad for capacitor-type power factor correction devices, you might be led to believe that using one can save you money on your residential electricity bill. However, ...
Toward home-brewed electricity with 'personalized solar energy'
Dec 16, 2009 |
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New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of "personalized solar energy," in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their ...
Home heating efficiencies offer 'hat trick' of savings: study
Dec 15, 2009 |
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Improving the energy efficiency of Maryland homes heated by natural gas would generate a "hat trick" of economic and environmental benefits over the next 10 years, including more than 80,000 new jobs, savings of hundreds ...
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How to spur energy storage innovations
13 hours ago |
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Imagine flying all the way from coast to coast, completely guilt-free, in an airplane that doesn’t emit a single particle of greenhouse gas or air pollutants. That could happen someday, perhaps brought to ...
IBM Reveals Five Innovations that Will Change Cities in the Next Five Years (w/ Video)
14 hours ago |
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Today, IBM unveiled a list of innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe over the next five to ten years.
Study expects rising interest in energy saving
Dec 16, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Energy-efficient technology for batteries, grids and power storage will be trendy in 2010, according to a study released Wednesday on clean energy technology.
Launch of first operating system for smart grid home automation
Dec 16, 2009 |
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Fraunhofer IWES (Germany) presents the OGEMA Alliance, which will offer an open software platform for energy management.
Miracle light: Can lasers solve the energy crisis?
Dec 15, 2009 |
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Next year will mark the 50th birthday of the laser, one of the most productive and widely used mega-inventions of the last century. Scientists hope that 2010 also will see the launch of laser technology's greatest challenge: ...
Micromachined piezoelectric harvester drives fully autonomous wireless sensor
Dec 15, 2009 |
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For the first time, a piezoelectric harvesting device fabricated by MEMS technology generates a record of 85μW electrical power from vibrations. A wafer level packaging method was developed for robustness. ...
Our devices will spin denser webs of data in 2010s
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Dec 15, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Ten years ago, we would have been blown away by a cell phone with far more computing power and memory than the average PC had in 1999, along with a built-in camera and programs to manage every aspect ...
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