Electricity | Definition, Facts, & Types | Britannica

Electricity | Definition, Facts, & Types | Britannica Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos electricity Introduction Electrostatics Coulomb’s law Calculating the value of an electric field Superposition principle Electric potential Deriving electric field from potential Capacitance Principle of the capacitor Dielectrics, polarization, and electric dipole moment Capacitors in series and parallel Applications of capacitors Direct electric current Basic phenomena and principles Conductors, insulators, and semiconductors Electromotive force Direct-current circuits Resistors in series and parallel Kirchhoff’s laws of electric circuits Alternating electric currents Basic phenomena and principles Transient response Alternating-current circuits Behaviour of an AC circuit Resonance Electric properties of matter Piezoelectricity Electro-optic phenomena Thermoelectricity Thermionic emission Secondary electron emission Photoelectric conductivity Electroluminescence Bioelectric effects References & Edit History Related Topics Images & Videos At a Glance electricity summary Quizzes Science Quiz Energy & Fossil Fuels Electricity: Short Circuits & Direct Currents Weaponry, Energy, and Power Systems Quiz Related Questions What causes lightning? 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Suckling Honorary Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Author of The Living Battery. Eustace E. Suckling All Fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated May 6, 2026 • History Britannica AI Ask Anything Quick Summary Table of Contents Table of Contents Quick Summary Ask Anything Top Questions What is electricity? What is an electric current? How does electricity flow in a circuit? What are conductors and insulators in electricity? How do voltage, current, and resistance relate to each other? What are some common uses of electricity in everyday life? Show more Show less News • Solar booms in industrial US midwest as energy crisis persists • May 2, 2026, 12:00 PM ET (The Guardian) Show less electricity , phenomenon associated with stationary or moving electric charges . Electric charge is a fundamental property of matter and is borne by elementary particles. In electricity the particle involved is the electron , which carries a charge designated, by convention, as negative. Thus, the various manifestations of electricity are the result of the accumulation or motion of numbers of electrons. Electrostatics Electrostatics is the study of electromagnetic phenomena that occur when there are no moving charges—i.e., after a static equilibrium has been established. Charges reach their equilibrium positions rapidly because the electric force is extremely strong. The mathematical methods of electrostatics make it possible to calculate the distributions of the electric field and of the electric potential from a known configuration of charges, conductors , and insulators . Conversely, given a set of conductors with known potentials, it is possible to calculate electric fields in regions between the conductors and to determine the charge distribution on the surface of the conductors. The electric energy of a set of charges at rest can be viewed from the standpoint of the work required to assemble the charges; alternatively, the energy also can be considered to reside in the electric field produced by this assembly of charges. Finally, energy can be stored in a capacitor ; the energy required to charge such a device is stored in it as electrostatic energy of the electric field. Coulomb’s law The science behind static electricity Explanation of static electricity and its manifestations in everyday life. (more) See all videos for this article Static electricity is a familiar electric phenomenon in which charged particles are transferred from one body to another. For example, if two objects are rubbed together, especially if the objects are insulators and the surrounding air is dry, the objects acquire equal and opposite charges and an attractive force develops between them. The object that loses electrons becomes positively charged, and the other becomes negatively charged. The force is simply the attraction between charges of opposite sign. The properties of this force were described above; they are incorporated in the mathematical relationship known as Coulomb’s law . The electric force on a charge Q 1 under these conditions, due to a charge Q 2 at a distance r , is given by Coulomb’s law, electric force between two charges Figure 1: Electric force between two charges. (more) The bold characters in the equation indicate the vector nature of the force, and the unit vector r̂ is a vector that has a size of one and that points from charge Q 2 to charge Q 1 . The proportionality constant k equals 10 −7 c 2 , where c is the speed of light in a vacuum; k has the numerical value of 8.99 × 10 9 newtons -square metre per coulomb squared (Nm 2 /C 2 ). Figure 1 shows the force on Q 1 due to Q 2 . A numerical example will help to illustrate this force. Both Q 1 and Q 2 are chosen arbitrarily to be positive charges, each with a magnitude of 10 −6 coulomb. The charge Q 1 is located at coordinates x , y , z with values of 0.03, 0, 0, respectively, while Q 2 has coordinates 0, 0.04, 0. All coordinates are given in metres. Thus, the distance between Q 1 and Q 2 is 0.05 metre. components of Coulomb force Figure 2: The x and y components of the force F in Figure 4 (see text). (more) The magnitude of the force F on charge Q 1 as calculated using equation ( 1 ) is 3.6 newtons; its direction is shown in Figure 1 . The force on Q 2 due to Q 1 is − F , which also has a magnitude of 3.6 newtons; its direction, however, is opposite to that of F . The force F can be expressed in terms of its components along the x and y axes , since the force vector lies in the x y plane. This is done with elementary trigonometry from the geometry of Figure 1 , and the results are shown in Figure 2 . Thus, in newtons. Coulomb’s law describes mathematically the properties of the electric force between charges at rest. If the charges have opposite signs, the force would be attractive; the attraction would be indicated in equation ( 1 ) by the negative coefficient of the unit vector r̂. Thus, the electric force on Q 1 would have a direction opposite to the unit vector r̂ and would point from Q 1 to Q 2 . In Cartesian coordinates , this would result in a change of the signs of both the x and y components of the force in equation ( 2 ). Key People: Thomas Edison Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton Edward Weston Charles Francis Brush Fleeming Jenkin (Show more) Related Topics: bioelectricity electro-osmosis electrical conduction electrical discharge pole (Show more) See all related content Britannica Quiz Science Quiz How can this electric force on Q 1 be understood? Fundamentally, the force is due to the presence of an electric field at the position of Q 1 . The field is caused by the second charge Q 2 and has a magnitude proportional to the size of Q 2 . In interacting with this field, the first charge some distance away is either attracted to or repelled from the second charge, depending on the sign of the first charge.