Topic
Electricity & magnets
Charge, current, and the pull of a magnet — 28 tiny stories from every shelf.
Sky on fire, quietly
What Are the Northern Lights?
Particles from the Sun crash into high air and make it glow like a neon sign.
Let’s go →Invisible reach
How Do Magnets Work?
A magnet works because its atoms are all lined up in the same direction.
Let’s go →Our planet is a magnet
Why Does a Compass Point North?
Earth's liquid iron core makes a magnetic field that swings compass needles north.
Let’s go →Rubbed the wrong way
Why Do You Get Shocks?
Static shocks happen when rubbing moves electric charge, and it jumps back all at once.
Let’s go →Light, cheap to reuse, and it protects itself
Why Are Drink Cans Made of Aluminium?
Aluminium is light, does not rust because it seals itself, and can be recycled with a fraction of the energy it took to make.
Let’s go →Loose electrons, and a price that works
Why Are Wires Made of Copper?
Copper carries electricity well because its outer electrons are loose, and it is cheap and bendy enough to use everywhere.
Let’s go →A shared pool of electrons
Why Is Metal Shiny?
Metal shines because its outer electrons are shared loosely by every atom, and that sea throws light back.
Let’s go →A giant spark
What Is Lightning?
Lightning is a huge electric spark between a charged cloud and the ground.
Let’s go →Giving the strike an easy road
How Does a Lightning Rod Protect a House?
A lightning rod gives a strike an easy metal route to the ground, away from the building.
Let’s go →A magnet inside a bigger magnet
How Does a Compass Work?
A compass needle is a magnet that lines up with Earth's magnetic field.
Let’s go →Iron, made temporarily magnetic
Why Do Magnets Stick to the Fridge?
Magnets stick to fridges because the door's steel becomes temporarily magnetic itself.
Let’s go →A sealed tank of chemicals
Why Does a Battery Run Out?
A battery goes flat because it holds a fixed amount of reacting chemicals, and each electron spends some.
Let’s go →Electricity needs a full loop
Why Does a Switch Turn Things On?
A switch works because electricity needs an unbroken loop, and opening a gap of air stops the whole thing.
Let’s go →Rain, stored on a hillside
How Does a Dam Make Electricity?
A dam holds water high up; letting it fall through a turbine turns the height it lost into electricity.
Let’s go →A circuit that completes itself
What Happens When You Press a Doorbell?
A doorbell button is a gap in a circuit — pressing it closes the loop, and an electromagnet does the rest.
Let’s go →Something has to break first
Why Do Fuses Blow?
A fuse is a thin wire built to melt when too much electricity flows, breaking the circuit before anything else can burn.
Let’s go →A magnet, some wire, and movement
How Is Electricity Actually Made?
A generator makes electricity by moving a magnet past coils of wire, which pushes the electrons in the wire along.
Let’s go →Steam that flips a switch
Why Does a Kettle Switch Itself Off?
A kettle stops because steam runs down a hidden tube to a strip of two metals, which bends and snaps the switch open.
Let’s go →A wire too hot to stay dark
How Does Electricity Become Light?
An old bulb glows because a thin wire resists the current and gets white-hot; an LED makes light directly.
Let’s go →A speaker running backwards
How Does Your Voice Get Recorded?
A microphone records you by letting your voice flex a thin sheet and turning that flexing into an electrical wobble.
Let’s go →Three pins, three different jobs
What Is Happening Inside a Plug?
A plug's pins give electricity a path in, a path back, and an emergency escape route to the ground.
Let’s go →Pushed hard so less is lost
Why Are Power Lines So High Up?
Power lines carry electricity at enormous voltage because that wastes far less on the journey, then transformers step it back down.
Let’s go →Almost all of them boil water
How Does a Power Station Work?
Most power stations burn or split something to boil water, and the steam spins a turbine that turns a generator.
Let’s go →Light knocking electrons loose
How Does Sunlight Become Electricity?
A solar panel works because packets of light knock electrons loose and the cell's layers send them all the same way.
Let’s go →A magnet shoving paper
How Does a Speaker Make Sound?
A speaker makes sound by using a coil and magnet to shove a paper cone back and forth at the air.
Let’s go →It notices charge, not pressure
How Does Glass Feel Your Finger?
A touchscreen does not feel pressure; it notices your body stealing a little charge from a grid of invisible wires.
Let’s go →A wire loop under the tarmac
How Does the Road Know You Are Waiting?
Traffic lights often notice you because a wire loop buried in the road detects your car's metal.
Let’s go →Three blades, and each one is a wing
How Does a Wind Turbine Work?
A wind turbine's blades are wings: moving air lifts them sideways, spinning a shaft that turns a generator.
Let’s go →