This was the progression of that journey toward unification that I noted while watching a lecture from ‘Professor Richard A. Muller. Physics for Future Presidents. Spring 2006′ on YouTube:

Faraday set up a simple circuit and found that a coiled wire placed next to a magnet rotates when an electrical current is placed through the wire. This lead to the creation of the electrical motor.

It was then discovered that the forces worked in reverse and that magnets placed inside a coiled wire could produce an electrical current and so the electrical generator was born.

This generator is made from an open-ended box with a nail through the center. The box has many turns of fine copper wire wound around it, with four large magnets clamped around the nail. When the nail and magnets are spun fast by hand, the little light bulb lights up dimly. This generator does not use a commutator ( an electricital switch which reverses the current).

Edison pioneered sending electricity through wires to be used in a practical way. He placed a coiled wire inside a lightbulb containing a vacuum (later inert gases also used) and so the electricity heated the wire which then got hot and glowed.

Electricity: almost all things, including atoms are explained in terms of electricity i.e opposite attracts, same repels, and can be assigned in terms of force.

Metals can almost be defined in terms of their electrical properties. Metals can act as an electron pipe in which the electrons can move freely. Electrons inside the metal can jump from one atom to another. Therefore it is possible for us to send electricity through wires as electricity is fundementally moving electrons.

A good way to understand electricity is in comparison to water. It has to flow in a loop otherwise it will pile up in one place and soon other electrons will stop coming and stop itself from flowing. Its the flow which allows things to heat up, but you don’t want a metal that heats up too much during transmission of electricity.

If a bird is on one of the two electricity wires in the air then once it has absorbed enough electrons it will repel further electrons and the bird will be safe. If the bird has a foot on each of the cables then it will complete the loop and the electrons will pass through the bird it and it will start to heat up.

SUPERCONDUCTORS give no resistance when the electrons move through it (remember that the more resistance electrons encounter, the more they are caused to bounce about and to heat up). They haven’t discovered SC’s that operate at room temperature yet but when this happens it will transform our daily lives.

MAGNETISM is the force which comes about from moving electrons, (magnetism occurs only when they’re moving).
In permenant magnets the electrons are not moving about but they are spinning about aligned to the same poles (unlike in different way as in other things).


ELECTRICAL MOTORS use electricity to create magnetism and then uses that magnetism with permenant magnets, or coils, to make make something move, usually in a circle.

STORING INFORMATION with magnetism by taking a metal dics then passing electricity through a coil creating magnetism and alligning the poles within the disc, which you then get another coil to read, with 1 or 0 being assigned to either where the N or S is, and this is what a magnetic recording does. You can even reset the information on the disc through the same process

FORCE FROM A DISTANCE
An electron in space creates an electric field around it that exerts force on other electrons or protons. You can shake an electric field and create electric waves.
Radio waves are not the only other kind of electromagnetic wave. X-rays, microwaves, infra red, ultraviolet and gamma rays are all invisible forms of electromagnetic radiation.