You can’t see magnetism, but you can feel it working near a magnet. In the space around a magnet is a magnetic field. If you hold something made from magnetic material, such as iron or steel, in a magnetic field,…
We use magnetism in so many ways that modern life would be impossible without it. We need magnetism to produce large amounts of electricity in power stations. There are magnets in compasses, loudspeakers, electric motors, refrigerator doors, computer disks, and…
Before scientists discovered how to generate electricity, people had to use other sources of energy. For centuries, people burned wood or coal to heat their homes and cook their food. They built windmills and waterwheels that used the power of…
There are two kinds of electrical charge—positive and negative. An object that gains electrons has a negative charge. An object that loses electrons has a positive charge. Two charges of the same kind push each other apart. We say that…
A battery may have just one cell or more than one. Many flashlight batteries, have only one cell. Each cell is made up of three main parts. Do you know how batteries make flashlights and other things work? When you…
The baby in the picture hasn’t been born yet. It is still lying inside its mother’s womb.How could a photograph like this have been taken? The photograph was taken using flexible, transparent threads, or fibers, of glass. These are so…
Nothing we know of can travel faster than light. An object traveling at the speed of light can travel around the world about seven and a half times in one second.The light from the sun, 93 million miles (150 million…
When you look around your home, you will see lots of different colors. Most people like to have plenty of color in their home. Colors can make a room look bright and cheerful.How do we see these different colors? White…
Shut your eyes tight—all you can see is darkness. Now open your eyes again. If it is daytime, you will see that light is all around you. What is Natural light? Anything that gives off a light that we can…