You know that energy plays a big role in your everyday life. In this activity, you will look in a little more detail at some of the energy conversions involving electric energy that are probably quite familiar to you. You will also learn about some of the common ways in which energy is transformed to do everyday tasks in the home and workplace.

Light and Electricity

When you think of the uses of electricity, one of the first things that you might think of is light. In the previous lesson, you learned about how light is produced when an electric current meets resistance in a circuit.

Light can also be converted into electricity. Solar cells work similar to the chemical reaction in batteries you learned about previously. Solar cells are made of materials that absorb light, which starts the electrons in the materials moving through the solar cell. You know that this movement of electrons creates a current. You might have a solar-powered calculator that works on this principle!

Click on the Play button below to watch a video that shows how solar electricity works.

 

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Heat and Electricity

You can probably think of many devices that involve electrical energy being converted to heat: stoves, toasters, electric kettles, hair dryers, clothes dryers, etc.

The reverse transformation can also occur. That is, heat energy can be converted into electrical energy. This is done by using a thermocouple, which is a device made of two different types of metals joined together to form a loop. The point where the two metals are joined together is called a junction. If one of the junctions is heated, an electric current is produced. The greater the difference in temperature between the two junctions, the stronger the current that is produced. Thermocouples are used frequently to measure temperatures in appliances such as ovens, furnaces, and hot water heaters. You will learn more about thermocouples in the Self-Check Activity.

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Mechanical Energy and Electricity

Think of tools and equipment that people use in their work and at home. One of the features of them is a motor. You know that mechanical energy is related to the movement of the parts of an object. Motors work by converting mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Nearly 200 years ago, scientists discovered that when a current flows through a wire, a magnetic field is created around the wire. Through experiments, they learned that by winding wire around a metal core, an electromagnet resulted when current ran through the wire. The electromagnet spins until it can find an opposite magnetic force to stop it. With more experimentation, electrical motors resulted that available in many sizes today! You will learn more about electromagnets in the Self-Check Activity.

 

  

 

Click on the Play button below to watch a video on how to make an electromagnet.

 

These are just a few examples of the many ways that forms of energy can be transformed into other forms to help us in many of our activities.