How electrical transformers use coils of conductive wire to change voltage levels

How electricity is generated by heating water into steam, which rotates magnets

Electrical current—the flow of electrons in a wire—can be produced when exposing a wire to a changing magnetic field. By rotating the magnets, as occurs in a turbine-generator system, the field changes become cyclical. This produces alternating current—flow that moves forward and backward—converting mechanical energy into electrical energy.

The flow of electricity in AC circuits flips back and forth, unlike DC circuits

Alternating currents in the US change the flow direction 120 times every second, allowing for efficient transformation and transmission of energy across power grids by sending energy at lower currents. This is changed into one-way direct currents when powering electronics.

Electromagnetic induction creates electricity from a changing magnetic field

The phenomenon was discovered in 1831 by Michael Faraday when an electric current was induced in a wire wrapped around an iron ring after a second wrapped wire not connected to the first was connected or disconnected from a battery.

Metal detectors identify induced magnetic fields in conductive objects

A changing magnetic field in a transmitter coil causes an electric current to be produced in materials that conduct electricity. This current generates its own magnetic field, which can be detected by a receiver coil and transmitted to a control box, which identifies the presence and depth of an object.

The Tesla coil was the first system to wireless transmit electricity

Developed in 1891, the system effectively consists of two open electric circuits with a gap of air between them. When a high enough voltage is built up, air becomes a conductor and sparks of electricity are generated.

Learn why electrical substations are needed to provide safe electricity with minimal energy loss

These typically fenced-off facilities with steel boxes or cylinders topped with cone-like caps house circuit breakers, fuses, and switches that can isolate sections of the grid to prevent electrical failures from spreading. Substations use transformers to modify electrical voltage and are customized to the generation, transmission, and distribution networks they interconnect.

Explore an interactive graphic of a wind turbine's components

Wind turbines contain a gearbox that increases the rotation of the blades by a factor of 100 from low to high-speed shafts. The latter moves magnets that change the magnetic field within a generator, creating electricity.

Lightning rods provide a conductive pathway to safely steer massive electric currents

The device is positioned higher above the ground to "catch" one of the many branching filaments of electrons from clouds before they make contact with other surface structures, which have been induced to have a positive charge by overhead storm clouds. The current is then sent to a conductive grid buried underground.

Visualize how transformer architecture generates an LLM's outputs

Transformer architecture is the neural network framework upon which large language models predict and generate text based on user inputs. This interactive lets you explore the "thinking" a GPT does to generate responses based on your input.

Transistors are the foundation of electronic signal processing

Small amounts of voltage can allow or block the flow of electrons across a transistor made from modified layers of semiconducting materials. The conducting (1) and insulating (0) states can be quickly modified as binary code is processed in a computer system.

A fascinating look at why cucumber tendrils coil in opposite directions

The tendrils of cucumber plants coil when they hit a surface, creating a distinct telephone-cord look. Charles Darwin wrote about the mystery in the 1850s, though it wasn't until the 21st century that scientists figured out just how mysterious the coil is: its tendrils coil in opposite directions.

Corkscrew roller coasters feature tracks that twist 360 degrees around their axis

Thanks to the incorporation of steel, rides have gotten increasingly versatile, daring, and smooth, performing loops and turns that are much more difficult to safely achieve with wood.

How to make your own DIY ionic thruster

In the search for more efficient, sustainable types of propulsive thrust, scientists have dabbled in developing engines using ionic thrust, a type of propulsion using the attractive force of oppositely charged ions. First introduced by a Russian...

An overview of radioactivity, which can spontaneously change one element into another

Unstable atomic nuclei can transmute into a new element—an atom with a different number of protons—by emitting an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons) or a beta particle (an electron). The electron can emerge from the nucleus when a neutron, which has no charge, suddenly transforms into a proton and an electron, thereby maintaining zero charge before and after the transformation, but altering the original element.

What does the hurricane forecast cone really tell us?

Ever feel like hurricane forecasts change a lot? Hurricane forecast tracks might not mean what you think they do. Concentric circles are actually used to help form the forecast. Chief Meteorologist Bobby Deskins explains how you should really be reading these cones.

Cochlear implants stimulate nerves inside the ear to provide the sensation of sound

In a surgical procedure, one part of the implant is placed under the skin behind the ear and electrodes are threaded into the cochlea in the inner ear. Another part of the implant sits behind the ear and picks up sound and then converts it into patterns of nerve stimulation.

What are superconductors?

Superconductors are materials that carry electrical current with exactly zero electrical resistance (move electrons through it without losing energy to heat). Read more about how they work here.

How the Electoral College actually works

In settling on the rules for how the US elects presidents, the Founding Fathers coalesced around a system built on two inputs: Votes from individual voters, and the accumulation of votes from specially chosen Electors. The latter comprise the US Electoral College, and this Washington Post article explains why it exists, how it works, and how its 538 electors collectively decide presidential elections.

Understand the differences between manga and comics

Manga and comics—often conflated with one another—are two distinct art forms. Manga is predominantly black-and-white, with long and continuous story arcs by a consistent creator. Western comics, meanwhile, are done in full color, released as individual issues, often feature multiple creative teams, and encourage shorter and self-contained narratives.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

How helium turns the Large Hadron Collider into the world's largest cryogenic system

Across three stages, five "cryogenic islands," and weeks of cooling, 36,000 metric tons of magnets are successively brought down to temperatures colder than outer space using a closed liquid helium system. Helium continues to circulate during the collider's operation to maintain the magnets' temperature and the transmission of electrical current with zero resistance.

How chemical bonds between atoms form molecules and large geometric structures

In ionic bonding, one atom transfers at least one electron to another atom, forming two atoms of opposite charge. These atoms attract one another and can stack up in a 3D grid called a lattice. Covalent bonding, where electrons are instead shared, can produce enormous molecules, such as the two found in human chromosome 13, which each contain 37 billion atoms.

Aurora borealis and auroras australis do not always mirror one another

While the Earth's magnetic field is symmetric across the magnetic north and south poles in isolation, charged particles from the sun distort the field. If the angle of impact between the wave of particles and the Earth's field is such that the distortions are uneven, dissimilar geomagnetic storms and resulting auroras are produced in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Boost your Wi-Fi with aluminum foil

A surprising hack using aluminum foil can potentially improve Wi-Fi signals, to many readers' surprise. Check out the science with this brief article. Wi-Fi signals spread like radio or light waves from a router's antenna, often leading to...

Laser-etched electric charges guide toner during laser printing

When sending a print job, the file data generates an image that a laser maps positively charged regions onto a drum separately for each color toner. Once the negatively charged toner is applied where it was electrically attracted, heat and pressure fuse it onto the paper.

For the same cost, turbines with three blades are the most resilient

Odd-numbered blade values more evenly distribute wind loads across the face of rotors, reducing bending and twisting forces on the turbine that cause wear. Modeling shows that three blades optimize efficiency and cost for everyday wind speeds.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight