Electricity History How The Internet Works Science is Power! Energy Everywhere! Public Science Day 2002 2 Put a variety of magnets under a large sheet of paper, sprinkle iron filings on it. It took scientists many years to figure out what electricity is, how to produce it, and how to use it to create all the things we have today. As long ago as 600 BC, a fellow in Greece named Thales experimented with static electricity. One of his observations that he wrote down was that static electricity has attracting properties similar to magnetism. Lets compare the attracting powers of magnetism and static electricity for our-selves. Back then they probably experimented with naturally occurring magnets called “lodestones”.Electricity History How The Internet Works Science is Power! Energy Everywhere! Public Science Day 2002 3 This is the sort of attractive power that Thales compared to magnetism. Many centuries later in the 1500’s it was decided to use the Greek word for amber – “electron” - to name this force, and so we call it electricity. Notice that even in this simple example of we have to use some other source of energy to create the electricity. Can anyone tell me what that source is? (the mechanical energy of rubbing the balloon)

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