ABC Wednesday Challenge -- E

It's ABC Wednesday again, and we are off to a good start on the alphabet:


That's right, we are all the way up to E. But first I have to take a quick moment and revisit D.

Last week, I didn't get a chance to post. And I had such an appropriate topic too. Doctors! Many of you know that the vacation I had planned for here:

Ended up here instead:

But now I am home, and I seem to be slowly healing. My family doctor says in a month or two I should be "all better".

So, D is for Doctor.

But E, is the letter for this week.

My tie yesterday was my computer circuit board tie, so the appropriate EXTENSION of that topic is ELECTRICITY.

Although many US myths and legends credit Ben Franklin for discovering ELECTRICITY, ELECTRICITY has in fact been investigated by scientists since the 1600's.

Ben Franklin showed us that ELECTRICITY and lightning are the same thing, and in developing the lightning rod, gave us the first practical application for the science of ELECTRICITY.

In no time at all, ELECTRICITY was being used EVERYWHERE to make life EASIER.

So, what is ELECTRICITY?

This is an abstract concept that is hard for many to grasp, because it cannot easily be seen, but ELECTRICITY is nothing more than the flow of electrons from one atom to another.

Imagine a huge dinner party where every table is full. The host seats a guest at the first table, that forces one guest from that table to move to table two, which in turn forces one guest from table two to move to table three, and so on and so on all the way across the room, until a guest from table 100 is forced out the door on the other end of the banquet hall.

That's what happens. An extra electron is pushed into an atom, this forces an electron out into the next atom, and causes the chain reaction we know as ELECTRICITY or ELECTRICAL current.


Every substance reacts differently when ELECTRICITY is applied to it. Some things, like carbon, block the current. They are called resistors. Other things like metals, are very open to the current. They are known as conductors.

Still other elements will glow or vibrate, when the current passes through them, this results in light bulbs, audio speakers and radio receivers.

The science of ELECTRONICS is even more fascinating. It started when scientists discovered that adding different chemicals to silicon, a neutral substance that was neither a conductor nor a resistor, would cause it to duplicate or simulate other substances.

The latest ELECTRONIC breakthroughs came when scientists discovered that by placing tiny, microscopic drops of different chemicals, on a piece of silicon, and running micro currents through them, they could create the same end result as they did when they constructed huge circuit boards filled with ELECTRONIC components. They call these tiny creations IC chips, or microchips.


This allowed them to take a machine like a TV, or a Stereo, that used to take up a big cabinet, and build them in sizes small enough to fit in your wristwatch.

What will the next great discovery in ELECTRICAL science be?

It's anyone's guess.

Please take some time to check out what others were INSPIRED to blog about this week, at

ABC Wednesday,
and feel free to add your own blog to the list as we work our way through the alphabet.

Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures. Read all about it here