Static and Current Electricity

Introduction :

The two basic kind of electricity that exist in nature are:  the static electricity and the current electricity.Static electricity is nothing but the collection of uncontrolled electrons which are passing from one body to another body in a movement which is sudden or momentary. Whenever the motion of the electron along a path is a controlled motion then the electricity so produced in the system or circuit is the current electricity.

Examples of static and current electricity

The examples of static electricity:

    The clothes taken out from the dryer and they are stick together

    One can get a shock after walking on the carpet and then suddenly touching something.

The static electricity is generally a nuisance and the hazards of static electricity include the cause of fire. The example of static electricity in which it is produced by rubbing the balloon with the hairs.

Static electricity

Example of current electricity:

The path used in the case of the current electricity is generally a conductor of electricity like a copper wire which can move the electricity from the power plant to the households

Current electricity

Application of Static and Current Electricity

The current electricity is obtained in case when a plug is inserted in a socket, which is generally seen in our homes and this electricity is used to power up the systems like the stereo and the lights. The current electricity is the flow of billions of electrons through the circuit and this flow of electron make a wave of electron which has a voltage of about 120 V. The flow of the current electricity in a system can be taken as the pushing of the electrons through the system through a wire and on the wall on which the socket of electricity is located.

On the other hand, the static electricity occurs only when some of the electrons of a neutral material are moved from their present location to some other location and hence give rise to the electricity and the motion of electron is due to some unknown causes and this electricity is not generally observed. In case of the static electricity no new electron is involved to produce electricity only those electrons which are already there are undergoes some changes hence produces electricity.

A day without electricity

Introduction

A day without electricity is very difficult. Imagining a day without electricity thinking it will be very difficult

Imagine a day without electricity, not just a brief power outage. We all know how inconvenient that day becomes when our electricity is out for only a few hours. How hard it is to remember for that short period of time that the light switch will not produce instant light, the hair dryer will not immediately blow dry our hair, or that we can't even run water into our homes. Our homes and lives have become so dependent on electricity it is really hard to imagine everything that would change without it.

In details

Lifestyles in our own Ozark Mountain region have changed dramatically with the invention of electricity and its establishment into our everyday lives. Have you ever noticed a log cabin built at the very top of a high mountain where it would have a beautiful view? Probably not. Locations were chosen for homes because of accessibility to water, preferably a big spring. Having your home close to a spring meant having cold milk, a cool watermelon in the summer, and plenty of drinking water. Before electricity, a "spring box" would be constructed where the cool spring water would run into it and be deep enough to cover containers of milk, butter, etc. I'm convinced that a spring located close to your home was just about one of the biggest luxuries in those days. Remember, without electricity there were no electric cattle waterers. Drawing water from the well by hand to water a herd of cattle and horses would now seem an impossible task.

A day without electricity
Can we really imagine doing laundry without electricity? Carrying water from the spring, or drawing enough water from the hand-dug water well could prove to quite a day's chore. We really can't imagine the time and effort put into doing a mere "load of laundry" before our electric washers and dryers.

Periodic table alkali metals

Introduction :   

Elements belonging to group 1in periodic table are called alkali metals.  Their outer most electronic configuration is ns1 in periodic table.

Z        Element        No. of electrons

1         Hydrogen             1

3         Lithium                2, 1

11       Sodium               2, 8, 1

19       Potassium           2, 8, 8, 1

37       Rubidium            2, 8, 18, 8, 1

55      Caesium              2, 8, 18, 18, 8, 1

87      Francium             2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 8, 1

The group in a periodic table also includes hydrogen because of the similarity in the electronic configuration with these elements.  They are called alkali metals since they readily dissolve in water to form soluble hydroxides which are strongly alkaline in nature.  The word alkali has been derived from the Arabic word alquili, which means the ashes of plants from which certain compound of the elements sodium and potassium were initially isolated.  Sodium and potassium are abundant while the remaining elements occur only in traces.  The last element francium is radioactive and unstable. 

Alkali metals of periodic table:

They have maximum value of atomic radii, form monovalent  cations and possess the lowest ionization enthalpies  Their hydration enthalpies are low due to their large size. They have low electro negativities and all the members are strongly electro positive.They possess +1 oxidation state, and have low melting and boiling points. They are very light and impart characteristic colors to the flame.They exhibit photoelectric effect. 

They are highly reactive chemically because of their low ionization enthalpies and enthalpy of atomization. They are normally kept in chemically inert solvents such as kerosene.  They form oxide when they combine with oxygen and hydroxide when they react with water.The reaction with water is highly exothermic.So, alkali metals are not kept in contact with water.All alkali metals combine with hydrogen upon heating to form colorless crystalline hydrides that are ionic in nature.They combine with halogens directly to form metal halides. The alkali metals are powerful reducing agents.They are soluble in liquefied ammonia.They react with sulphur and prosperous upon heating to form the corresponding sulphides and phosphides.  

Hydrogen atom consists

Introduction

A hydrogen atom consists of an atom of the chemical element hydrogen. It is an electrically neutral atom which contains a single positively-charged proton and a single negatively-charged electron and they are bound to the nucleus by the Coulomb force. Hydrogen-1, protium, or light hydrogen is the most abundant isotope and it contains no neutrons. There are other isotopes of hydrogen, such as deuterium which contains one or more neutrons.

Niels Bohr in the year 1914 got hold of the spectral frequencies of the hydrogen atom subsequent to making a number of straightforward assumptions. The assumptions were not fully right but they gave up the proper energy answers.

Schrödinger equation and Hydrogen atom

The confirmation of the Bohr's results for the frequencies and underlying energy values were done using Schrödinger equation between the years 1925-1926. The clarification to the Schrödinger equation for hydrogen is systematic. This equation can be used to find out energy levels and thus the hydrogen spectral lines frequencies can be measured. The explanation of the Schrödinger equation goes much advance than the Bohr model nevertheless, for the reason that it also gives way to the shape of the electron's wave function ("orbital") for the various possible quantum-mechanical states, thus clearing up the anisotropic character of atomic bonds. This equation for the hydrogen atom is based on the fact that the coloumb potential which is produced by the nucleus is isotropic in nature. It is radially symmetrical in space and depends on the distance to the nucleus. The resulting eigen energy functions are not isotropic themselves.

Hydrogen ion

In ordinary chemistry, hydrogen is not found without its electron at room temperatures and pressure. Ionized hydrogen is written as "H⁺". Ionized hydrogen in case of the salvation of classical acids like hydrochloric acids forms hydronium ion. Hydronium ion is written as H₃O⁺. This refers to the entire hydronium ion and to a single ionized hydrogen atom. In this type of case, the proton is transferred by acid from water to the hydronium ion. This type of ionized hydrogen without their electron or free protons is commonly observed in the solar wind and interstellar medium

The nucleus of an atom contains

An atom is constructed of three major particles; two of them are in a central region or core called the atomic nucleus. The third type of particle is in the region surrounding the nucleus. The weight or mass of the atom is concentrated in the nucleus. The nucleus of the atom contains the protons and the neutrons, which are the massive particles of the atom. One type of particle located in the nucleus is the neutron.

Introduction 

Neutrons were named to reflect their lack of electrical charge. They are neutral. Protons, the second type of particle in the nucleus in certain areas called  enegry levels are the electrons. Each electron has a negative electrical charge. The number of electrons determine the space that an atom occupies.

Charge of an atom

The charge of an atom is neutral if the number of positively charged protons equals the number of negatively charged electrons. For instance, hydrogen with 1 proton, would have 1 electron; carbon with 6 protons would have 6 electrons. You can determine the number of either of these two particles in a neutral atom if you know the number of other particles.

Identity of the element
All the atoms of the same element have the same number of protons. The number of protons determine the identity of the element. For example, carbon always has 6 protons and no other element has that number. Oxygen always has 8 protons. The atomic number of an element is the number of protons in an atom of that element; therefore, each element has a unique atomic number. Because this is an extremely small mass and is awkward to express, 1 proton is said to have a mass of 1 atomic mass unit.

Neutral atoms
Although all the neutral atoms of the same element have the same number of protons and electrons, they do not always have the same number of neutrons. In the case of oxygen, over 99% of the atoms have 8 neutrons, but there are others with more or fewer neutrons. Each atom of the same element with a different number of neutrons is called an isotope of that element. Since neutrons have a mass very similar to that of a proton, isotopes that have more neutrons will have a greater mass than those that have fewer neutrons.

Isotopes
Elements occur in nature as a mixture of isotopes. The atomic weight of an element is an average of all the isotopes present in their normal proportions. For example, of all the isotopes present in their normal proportions. For example, of all the hydrogen isotopes on Earth, 99.985% occur as an isotope without a neutron and 0.015% as the isotope with one neutron.There is a third isotope with two neutrons but it is not considered because it is highly unstable. When the math is done to account for the relative amounts of the various isotopes of hydrogen, the atomic weight turns out to be 1.0079 AMU.

Mass number of an atom
The sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom is called the mass number. Mass numbers are used to identify isotopes. A hydrogen atom with 1 proton and 1 neutron has a  mass number of 1 + 1, or 2, and is reffered to as hydrogen-2 ( also called deuterium). A hydrogen atom with 1 proton and 2 neutrons has a mass number of 1 + 2 , or 3, and is referred to as hydrogen-3 ( also called tritium).

3 particles of an atom

Hi There are 3 main particles of an atom. They are electrons, protons and neutrons.

Introduction to 3 particles of an atom

Protons
Protons are the most elementary particles of an atom.
They are situated in the nucleus.
They carry single positive charge.
In fact, charge carried by a proton has been labeled as single charge.
How do all the protons, which are similarly charged stay composed in the nucleus?
It is because of energy called binding energy.
The number at the base of an atom represent the atomic number.
e.g.In case of carbon ₆C, the atomic number is 6, which means number of protons is 6.

Neutrons

They are nuclear particles with mass nearby that of protons but no charge.
Since they are part of mass number along with the protons, the number of neutrons is equal to,
Mass number - Number of protons.
e.g: The mass number of Krypton is 84 and the number of protons is 36.
So the number of neutrons =  84 - 36 = 48
Mass number is written at the top of the symbol of the element.

Electrons

Electrons are negatively charged subatomic particles.

The charge is −1.602×10⁻¹⁹ Coulomb.
Their mass is 1/1836 ^th of that of proton and is many a times neglected in related calculations.
Electrons are rotating outside the nucleus of an atom. They are arranged in sub-shells in different energy levels.

The energy levels are named as K, L, M, N etc.., and the sub-shells as s, p, d, f etc.., Electrons posses a spin of +1/2 or -1/2.

Electrons are elementary particles and are not composed of quarks. They were discovered by J.J.Thompson in 1897.

Electricity is actually flow of electrons.
Chemical bonds are formed either by donating, accepting or sharing of electrons.
As the number of electrons is same as that of protons, the atom attains stability as the opposite charges attract one another.
Thus the number of electrons can be found from the number of protons.

Iron atom

Introduction 

Iron atom is a chemical element having atomic number 26 and with the symbol ‘Fe’ which in Latin means ferrum.  It is a metal in the first transition series.  Like other ‘group 8’ elements, it exists in several oxidation states. The oxidation states of iron is +2 and +3, it might also occur in higher oxidation states of about +6.  Iron (II) compounds are called ferric and iron(III) compounds are called ferrous.   Iron and its alloys are the widely used ferromagnetic materials in the modern day life.

Pure iron is softer than aluminum.  Steel can be prepared by alloying pure iron with small amounts of other metals and carbon. The alloy steel is almost 1,000 times harder than pure iron.  It is the most common element found on earth.  It reacts with air to form iron oxides also known as rust. The rusting of iron and its alloys is undesirable, and has a major economic impact. The melting point of iron is about 1535 °C. Its mechanical properties can be varied extensively by varying the carbon content in the alloy.

      Different types of Iron are

1.   Pig iron has 3.5–4.5% carbon
2.   Cast iron contains 2–4% carbon 
3.   Wrought iron has less than 0.008% carbon

Occurrence and Biological Importance of Iron atom

Occurrence of Iron atom: Iron is the fourth most abundant element in the Universe, formed from the process known as nucleosynthesis, by the fusion of silicon in huge stars. Metallic iron is rarely found on the surface of the earth because it tends to oxidize, but its oxides are diffused and represents the primary ores. About 5% of the earths curst constitutes of Iron.  Most of the Inner and outer core of earth consists of Iron-Nickel alloy which is about 35% of the total mass of the earth.  Hematite and Magnetite are the most common form of iron ore which is found in earth crust. These ores are combined with oxygen to form iron oxides. 

Biological importance of Iron atom: Iron plays a major role in biology.  Ranging from the primitive archaea to humans, all living organism has iron-proteins.  Hemoglobin is a protein containing iron.  Hemoglobin is responsible for the color of the blood.  Hemoglobin and myoglobin are the two compounds which helps in the transportation of oxygen proteins in vertebrates.  Iron is present in each and every cell of the human body. It is the basic necessity for the growth and development of a living organism.

Applications of Iron