As a sort of experiment, I decided to see how much certain appliances in my house cost my parents. At first, as a control, I unplugged everything and I even switched off the fridge. This is to prevent another thing consuming electricity and compromising the results. On my list of appliances was: 1) the electric kettle, 2) the toaster, 3) all the integrated lights turned on, 4) the projector, sound system, and blu-ray player, (everything needed to watch a movie). I tried each one individually, switching them off as I was finished with them to make sure the next appliance was the only thing consuming. The way I got my results was that I timed myself for one minute and counted how many times I saw the red line (black in my case) on the rotating piece of metal under the numbers indicating the watts consumed. I tried each appliance three times to make sure I got an average and here is what the results looked like:

Here is an average of the rotations:

On the electric meter, it was indicated that 187.5 revolutions (rotations of the line) was equal to 1 kilo watt. This means that if the line revolved 187 and a half times, the numbers on top would be bigger by one unit. To find out how many watts were used in only one turn, I did a simple 3 rule. 1000 watts is equal to 1 kilo watt.

per turn

And then, I calculated how much each appliance used in watts by multiplying the number of watts per rotation with the number of turns I counted for the appliances..

Kettle=

Toaster=

Lights=

Projector and Co.=

I then went on to find out how much it cost money-wise. On a recent electricity bill, I saw the price at:

14.10 cents per kilo watt.

The problem was that my previous calculations weren’t in kilo watts but in watts. Once I had the watts, I had to simply divide by 1000 to convert them to kilo watts, and multiply by the price (14.10 cents) and then convert the price to euros (divide by 100).
Here is a table with the appliance, the number of watts consumed, and the price:

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Electricity is a general term for a wide range of events resulting from the presence or flow of an electric charge. These events could be things commonly known such as lightning or static electricity, but an other event possible could be electromagnetic fields. People have been aware of the shocks they received from electric fish and eels for a long time. Old Egyptian texts found named these fish as ‘Thunderers of the Nile’ and they were proclaimed as the ‘protectors’ of all fish. Later on, Ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic physicians wrote about these fish. They knew of the numbing effect of the shocks, and they knew the shocks could move with conducting objects. These electric fish were used as medicine to cure gout or headaches. The theory was that the sudden shock would shake away the sickness. Thales of Miletos made a series of observations around the year 600 BC concerning static electricity. He believed the static was because the objects he rubbed became magnetized because of friction. After him, electricity was no more than an abstract curiosity for millennia until 1600. In the early 19th century, the work became more precise and extensive experiments and observations were made. In the late 19th century, electricity was discovered and it became a tool in science and modern life instead of a scientific curiosity. People like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison showed up and electricity became a necessary force for the Second Industrial Revolution.

Electricity comes from atoms. The protons and neutrons create the center, the nucleus. The protons are positively charged and electrons, which rotate around the nucleus, are negatively charged. The neutrons, hence the name, are neutral. They are not charged. The actual electricity comes from when the electrons move from one atom to the other. Negatively-charged electrons are always attracted to positively-charged protons.

Some atoms are excellent at conducting because there are tracks which the electrons follow. The electrons mostly stick to the closest track to the nucleus because it requires less energy. If the track the most extended to the outside is clear enough of other electrons, the electrons can jump from one track to another and exit their previous atom to enter a new one. These atoms are Conductors. If the track isn’t clear or if the atom holds on tightly to it’s electrons, the electrons cannot move and no electricity is created. Another reason why some atoms conduct better than others is because of their Atomic Number. This number is written on the periodic table of the elements, and it basically tells you how many protons are in the nucleus of one atom from that element. The positively-charged protons attract negatively-charged electrons, making the passing from one atom to the other more tempting and once the electrons are moving, the attraction makes it easier for them to move.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity,http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/info/conductors.html,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_number,http://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/ext/basicsWhat-c.html

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