Electricity and Electromagnetics have fascinated me ever since elementary school when the whole class was taught how to take a nail, wire, battery and build a simple electromagnet.

    Electromagnetics have always been around you. Even the lightwaves that allow you to see this website through a computer screen are electromagnetic waves that your eyes are able to use and send signals to your brain. Even insects see beyond our scope of sight and into the ultraviolet range.

    A puzzling thing to me was how electricity could be made by humans.

Magnets and electricity go hand in hand:

    A power generator, whether it’s huge or small makes use of changing a magnetic field in close relation to a conductor like a wire. The essential part is that the magnetic field has to be changing. One example is the generator in a hydro-electric turbine. Water powers the turbine that turns the generator shaft. The shaft has strong magnets attached to it that swing around. Close to these magnets are would wire coils that pick up the magnetic fields. Often the type of electricity that is produced is called Alternative Current (AC) because of the reversing magnetic fields. There is a way to change Alternating Current into Direct Current but that involves a set of diodes that makes what is called a rectifier.

The power that is in power lines is called 120 volts @ 60 Hz. The Hz stands for Hertz which is the number of times the electricity completes an entire reversal cycle.

The really interesting thing is that if you were to make an electromagnet powered by AC, you can can electricity to be created in a wire when placed nearby.

Commonly the human body is exposed to man-made electromagnetic fields. Since the body also conducts electricity it is quite easy to create a voltage in the body. These AC voltages have been investigated to determine how they affect the body. Even a cellphone transmits electromagnetic power that affects the human tissue around it. Some people have attributed birth defects and health problem being caused by them.