What is electricity?

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Have you ever heard electricity referred to as “electrical energy”? You might not have thought about electricity being a form of energy, but it is!

At its most basic, energy is what makes things go! Its definition is “the ability to do work.” One of the neat things about energy is that it comes in lots of different forms, such as heat energy, light energy, chemical energy, mechanical energy, sound energy, electrical energy, and more! Different forms of energy each work with different things. (For example, batteries will power a remote but they won’t help plants grow.) Forms of energy can also be converted into other forms of energy; this is the case with how we get electricity.

Electrical energy is generally made by converting movement into charged particles. The energy of something like burning coal or solar power is used to turn a metal wire (like copper) between two magnets. This creates a charge similar to the type of charge that builds up in clouds during a bolt of lightning, or the type of charge that sometimes causes a metal doorknob to shock you. – The charge that is created is electricity which then travels through wires and into our homes, schools, offices, and more!