The invention of the electricity generator | The Genius of Invention

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

Jim Al-Khalili tells how the first 'natural philosophers' began to unlock electricity's mysteries, studying its curious l...

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

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

Alternating current | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

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

Dangers and nuisance of electrostatics | GCSE Bitesize Revision

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

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

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

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

Leyden Jar | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

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

Mains electricity 2 | GCSE Bitesize Revision

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

Parallel and series circuits | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Spec references J249: P3.1e, P3.1f, P3.2a, P3.2b J250: P3.1d, P3.1e, P3.2a, P3.2b. Circuit symbols, differences between...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

03/12/2009 | Bang Goes the Theory

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...

Alternating and direct current | GCSE Bitesize Revision

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

Circuit symbols | GCSE Bitesize Revision

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

Circuits | Curriculum Bites

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

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

Current in series and parallel circuits | Curriculum Bites

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