The high resistance piece of wire in incandescent light bulbs glows as a result of electrons incoming through a low resistance material being squeezed through (bombard electrons that don’t want to be moved in) the high resistance material with a certain pressure (voltage). We are using the high resistance material to usurp (convert into heat and then into light) the kinetic energy of the electrons in the low resistance material (commonly copper wire).

We do the same thing with electrical heating elements and microphones.

Are we also doing this in electrical appliances from which we don’t expect a certain “end product” (heat, light, sound)? For instance, computers. When we were still using actual physical relays to build logic gates, I can imaging electron flow being converted into the energy (eletrco magnetism?) required to actuate/move the switch inside the relay. But what about today’s transistors? The processing units inside CPUs and GPUs heat up, but that’s a side effect of something I don’t understand. We are not trying to reap that heat. We are after manipulating groups transistors into expressing boolean logic by either giving them a voltage or not.

I know very little of electricity, so please do correct any incorrect assumptions! I’m very eager to learn! 😊💡

  • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
    16·
    12 hours ago

    The one thing I’ve learned about electricity, is that the more you learn about how it works, the less sense any of it makes.

    • printf("%s", name);@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      2·
      9 hours ago

      While I understand the need to simplify things for children who do not have enough prerequisite knowledge to otherwise understand science, “dumbing it down” is what has made me - and many more - believe that electricity works just like water. This has made it so difficult for me to “transition” into seeing electricity for what it actually is: electric fields generated by slightly moving electrons. I shouldn’t have chosen music as a major. 😂