What is electricity?

People use electricity to make thing such as lamps, phones and computers work. The uses for electricity are almost endless. When you press a button and something happens, electricity is usually involved. Like heat and light, electricity is a form of energy.

Electricity starts with atoms.

Everything in the natural world is made up of atoms. Atoms are far too small to be seen by the human eye. Every atom has a central core around which electrons spin. Every electron has a tiny negative charge.

In some materials, especially metals, large numbers of electrons can be made to move away from their atoms. This leaves many atoms with a positive charge and many free electrons. The flow of these free electrons in metal or in any other material is called electricity.