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← ⚛️ Physics · usually met in Std 6-12

Electricity

The movement of charge. A current is electrons flowing through a conductor, pushed by voltage and held back by resistance.

In series cell One path. The same current goes through everything, so one failed bulb stops them all. In parallel Each branch gets the full voltage and can fail alone. House wiring is parallel. V = I × R · voltage pushes, resistance holds back, current is what flows. A fuse is a deliberately weak link that melts before the wiring in the wall can catch fire.
Drawn for Star Student.
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Charge comes in two kinds; like charges push apart and unlike charges pull together. In a metal, some electrons are free to move, and when a cell or a generator provides a push — voltage — those electrons drift through the wire as a current. Resistance is how much the material fights that drift, and Ohm's law ties the three together: voltage equals current times resistance.

A circuit must be a complete loop; break it anywhere and everything stops, which is all a switch does. In a series circuit the same current passes through everything in turn, so one failed bulb stops them all. In a parallel circuit each branch gets the full voltage and can fail on its own, which is why house wiring is parallel. A fuse is a deliberately weak link that melts before the wiring behind the wall can catch fire.

Worth knowing

  • The electrons themselves drift surprisingly slowly — millimetres per second. The signal to start moving travels near the speed of light, which is why the bulb lights at once.
  • Earthing gives a stray current an easy path to the ground instead of through a person.
  • It is current that is dangerous to a human body, not voltage by itself.

Want to see it moving? Search YouTube for “Electricity” ↗ — we send you to the search rather than to one video, because a link to one video eventually rots.

See also

⚛️ Magnetism⚛️ Energy🧪 Metals and non-metals

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Last gone through: 1 October 2026 · How these entries are written

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