Alternating current | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Duration: 5'14''

Synopsis

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

Further Information

More clips from Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

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...

Electricity, Magnetism, Motion | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electricity, Magnetism, Motion | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'05''

Hans Christian Ørsted discovered that an electric current creates a magnetic field.

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...

The first light bulbs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

The first light bulbs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'01''

Jim Al-Khalili explores the history of Thomas Edison's first incandescent light bulb.

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...

Electricity, Magnetism, Motion | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electricity, Magnetism, Motion | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'05''

Hans Christian Ørsted discovered that an electric current creates a magnetic field.

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...

The first light bulbs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

The first light bulbs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'01''

Jim Al-Khalili explores the history of Thomas Edison's first incandescent light bulb.

More resources about Current, potential difference and resistance

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.

Ohm's law | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Ohm's law | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 2'07''

. Ohm's law V = IR with worked example narrated slides.

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...

Resistance | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Resistance | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'44''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how, as we made microchips smaller, the electrical feature of resistance was becoming more probl...

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 from Jim Al-Khalili

1: Discovering the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

1: Discovering the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

BBC Four | 2010 | 58'53''

The story of how the elements were discovered and mapped begins with the alchemists who questioned that the world...

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...