1: Spark | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Duration: 59'21''

Synopsis

Jim Al-Khalili tells how the first 'natural philosophers' began to unlock electricity's mysteries, studying its curious link to life and building instruments to create it.

Further Information

More clips from Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Insulators and Conductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Insulators and Conductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'22''

Stephen Gray, a silk dyer, was used to seeing sparks leap from the silk so he began experiments conductin...

Leyden Jar | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Leyden Jar | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'44''

A Leyden jar is a device for storing static electricity, discovered accidentally in Leiden, Netherlands.

Positive and negative charges | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Positive and negative charges | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'18''

Benjamin Franklin discovered that electricity could be like money in a bank, it could be in credit (p...

Voltaic Pile | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Voltaic Pile | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'06''

Invented by Italian chemist Alessandro Volta in 1799, the voltaic pile was the first electrical battery that could con...

What is electricity | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

What is electricity | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 1'49''

An electric current is essentially the flow of electrons (which are electrically charged) from one atom to anot...

More resources about Electricity

Potential difference in series and parallel circuits | Curriculum Bites

Potential difference in series and parallel circuits | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 1'44''

Spec references J249: P3.2a J250: P3.2a. Voltage (potential difference) in series and parallel circuits.

Current in series and parallel circuits | Curriculum Bites

Current in series and parallel circuits | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 55''

Spec references J249: P3.2a, P3.1f J250: P3.2a, P3.1e . Animated explanation of a current in series and parallel c...

2: The Age of Invention | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

2: The Age of Invention | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 59'23''

Jim Al-Khalili shows how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity transformed the world, allow...

Leyden Jar | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Leyden Jar | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'44''

A Leyden jar is a device for storing static electricity, discovered accidentally in Leiden, Netherlands.

03/12/2009 | Bang Goes the Theory

03/12/2009 | Bang Goes the Theory

BBC One | 2009 | 58'12''

A Bang Goes the Theory special event showing how much electricity we use without even thinking about it. The gang attempts to power a house...

3: Revelations and Revolutions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

3: Revelations and Revolutions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 59'04''

Jim Al-Khalili concludes by looking at how, if we could understand the secret of electrical supercon...

Alternating and direct current | Additional Science 2

Alternating and direct current | Additional Science 2

BBC Two | 2010 | 35'''

Spec references J249: P8.2h J250: P6.2g. Alternating and direct current. Description and animation.

Alternating current | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Alternating current | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'14''

Nikola Tesla invented alternating current (AC) which allowed no electrical power to be lost when passing throug...

Circuit symbols | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Circuit symbols | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 13''

Spec references J249: P3.2b J250: P3.2b. Circuit symbols - narrated slides.

Circuits | Curriculum Bites

Circuits | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 5'42''

Schools science programme where topics in the double science curriculum are broken down into small chunks.

Crystal Junctions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Crystal Junctions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'46''

Jim Al-Khalili explores the race between scientists to create a reliable way to amplify electrical signals, and i...

Dangers and nuisance of electrostatics | Additional Science 2

Dangers and nuisance of electrostatics | Additional Science 2

BBC Two | 2010 | 45''

Spec references J249: P3.1c J250: P3.1c. Discharging charged objects and dangers nuisance of static electricity...

Electric charge | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Electric charge | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 1'27''

A revision programme covering electricity.

Electrical Power | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Electrical Power | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 49''

Spec references J249: P3.2l, P3.2m J250: P3.2l, P3.2m . Description of electrical power, P = I V, watts and kilowatts. Narrated sl...

Electricity and the Atomic scale | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electricity and the Atomic scale | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'09''

Jim Al-Khalili explores how Ernest Rutherford's work on the atom revealed what electricity was on ...

Electromagnetic waves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electromagnetic waves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'28''

Jim Al-Khalili explains Michael Faraday's theory that any electrical charge can create a forcefield surroundi...

Electromagnets and telegraphs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electromagnets and telegraphs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'03''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how an electromagnet works and how it paved the way for the birth of the tele...

Electrostatics | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Electrostatics | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 3'40''

Animated shorts to support students preparing for assessments in GCSE Additional Science.

Energy transfer in circuits | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Energy transfer in circuits | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 4'33''

A revision programme covering electricity.

Faraday cage | Dangerous Earth

Faraday cage | Dangerous Earth

BBC Four | 2016 | 2'20''

Dr Helen Czerski explains how planes are protected from lightning.

More from Jim Al-Khalili

2: The Order of the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

2: The Order of the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

BBC Four | 2010 | 58'49''

Professor Jim Al-Khalili looks at how the early scientists' bid to decode the order of the elements was driven b...

Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives

Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives

BBC Four | 2017 | 1'20''

Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains Einstein's analogy of gravity that he told his son to explain his...

Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield

Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield

BBC Four | 2015 | 3'20''

Nuclear physicist Professo...

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific

BBC Radio 4 | 2015 | 26'54''

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talks to Jim Al-Khalili about her research on the developing teenage brain.

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'11''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how physics professor Oliver Lodge proved Maxwell's theory that electrom...

Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon

Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon

BBC Two | 2011 | 57'29''

Six months after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nu...

Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam

Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam

BBC Four | 2009 | 3'40''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how our numerical system spread to Europe through the work of the Arabic mathematician ...

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

BBC Four | 2007 | 3'01''

George Gamow believed that helium existed in the universe before the sun and the stars were formed.

Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites

Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 3'06''

Spec references J248: C3.4b J250: C3.4b. Professor Jim Al-Khalili recreates the electrolysis experiment that lead to...