November 2010

NO. In the early days of electrical science, researchers believed that there were two kinds of electricity: “vitreous” and “resinous.”

Instead, ‘static electricity’ is a collection of different electrical phenomena; phenomena where… The amounts of positive and negative electric charge

Wrong. Electricity is energy, atoms are energy, electrons are energy, matter is energy. Electricity is a our experience of charge imbalance

Never happened! Many people believe that Ben Franklin’s kite was hit by a lightning bolt, and this was how he

Not exactly. The scientist’s definition of the word “conductor” is different than the one above, and the one above has

No. Electric charges are very visible, even though their motion is not.

Wrong. The flow of electricity along a wire is a form of dissipation of electrical pressure and therefore generally tends

Not right. Sustaining a magnetic field requires no energy. Coils only require energy to initially create a magnetic field. They

No. They only travel at 186,000 miles per second while in a perfect vacuum. Light waves travel a bit slower

Wrong. Electric power cannot be made to flow. Power is defined as “flow of energy.” Saying that power “flows” is

Wrong. “Static electricity” exists whenever there are unequal amounts of positive and negative charged particles present. It doesn’t matter whether

The conventional view is that static electricity is created through charge separation which means that there is always equal quantities

WRONG “Static” electricity appears whenever two dissimilar insulating materials are placed into intimate contact and then separated again. All that’s

No. The word “charge” has more than one meaning, and the meanings contradict each other. The “charge” in a battery

Wrong. Some books teach that, in a simple battery/bulb circuit, each electron carries energy to the bulb, is emptied of

Not quite. The actual path of electric current is THROUGH the battery. Some books imply (or even state outright) that,

Wrong. Electric current is a flowing motion of charged particles. The words “Electric Current” mean the same as “charge flow.”