A Kitchen Course in Electricity and Magnetism [Paperback]

Electricity is all around us: cars, telephones, computers, lights -- the modern world runs entirely on electrons. But what are electrons? How do they behave? How do we control them? This book will show you how to build a battery, detect static electricity and construct a basic current meter, all using common items from your kitchen. Along the way you'll learn about the meaning of voltage and current , what makes an LED work and the difference between AC and DC. The last chapter uses transistors -- the basic building blocks of every computer -- for lots of interesting experiments. With plenty of colorful illustrations, historical stories and an easy, accessible style, A Kitchen Course in Electricity and Magnetism will be a great start for budding and amateur scientists who want to learn more about how the world works.This accessible book explores basic terms and concepts of electricity while showing how to make a battery, detect static electricity and build a basic current meter, all using common kitchen items. Includes color illustrations, historical stories and more.Part 1 HOME ELECTROSTATICS.- Background.- Kitchen experiments with static electricity.- Atoms.- Experiment: bending water.- Dipoles.- Experiment  comb & paper.- Kitchen electroscope.- Experiments with the electroscope.- Storing charge.- Charging by inducing charges.- Conductors and insulators.- Lightning; Franklins bells.- Airplane as a Faraday Cage.- Part 2 CURRENT & VOLTAGE.- Water analogy.- Galvanis frogs legs.- Amps, volts, energy, power.- Another way to get a voltage  Seebeck Effect.- LEDs vs bulbs.- Making a simple current meter.- Ohm's law.- Experiment  resistance of a household bulb.- Definition of power.- Lighting the LED.- Solar cells.- A charging circuit  plain diode.- Brief history of electrical diodes.- Series and parallel, water analogy.- Automobile lighting.- AC & DC.- An AC experiment with LEDs.- Part 3 MAGNETISM.- Lodestones.- Further view of magnetislC(