A very relevant question.

Electricity is associated with the flow of electrons, and electrons are negatively charged, just like you.

If electrons move in a straight line, we call it DC, direct current. If they move like a slithering snake, we call it AC, alternating current. https://twitter.com/fayedsouza/status/1246340064554004480

What makes electrons move?

If you take a conductor, of electricity, that is, and blow over one end hard, it may move the electrons.

However, this is insufficient, and inhuman.

So, we have those large windmills that are powerful enough to move electrons and produce electricity.

However, we cannot rely on windmills all the time because wind is becoming scarce.

So, there are special plants called power plants that produce power, just like rose plants produce roses.

Electricity is then connected to our homes and offices and other places through a grid.

When the electrons move into our home, they enter various appliances and make them run.

A fan, for example, rotates when the electrons push the blades. The more the electrons, the faster the fan moves. The regulator controls the electrons, like a bouncer at a pub's entrance.

Similarly, an AC (air conditioner, not alternating current, but an AC does work on AC) blows cold air because the electrons rotate the fan inside.

The same goes for any equipment with moving parts: grinders, mixers, juicers, and if you're lazy, electric shavers and toothbrushes.

What about chargers, you may ask, like a pseudo-journalist questioning Adani when Ambani does something, and Mahindra when Adani does something, and...well, you get the drift.

Incidentally, drift velocity is the velocity with which electrons move.

Anyway, back to chargers now.

When you connect your phone to the charger, electrons run through it and congregate inside the battery, like Tablighi Jamaat.

When you tap the screen, electrons flow from the battery to your fingers, and to your brain, making it negatively charged, which explains social media.

An important factor in electricity, besides current, is voltage. We've heard of "low voltage", especially when lights go dimmer than tweets of Rupa.

Voltage is measured in volt, just as footage is measured in foot. If you measure the voltage a second time, it is called a revolt.

Electricity generated at the power plant has a very high voltage, which would make the fan rotate at very high speeds, thereby increasing its mass and making it fall on your head.

So, we have transformers (not the Megan Fox ones) that step down the voltage to save your head.

An important parameter is resistance: measure of the opposition to the flow of electrons, like how the flow of law and order is resisted by some communities worse than others.

Resistance, interestingly, is measured in ohm, which makes it the only patriarchal measure in Science.

Anyway, what happens when we switch off lights, like we do for the Earth Hour?

If electrons have nowhere to go, they crowd near the terminals, and this could lead to electric switches exploding, and electrons spilling out into your room causing more negativity with your spouse.

How can we avoid this, as we have 10 more days without provoking our spouses?

One, keep moving equipment like fans running. We know that more electrons are needed for these than for unmoving equipment such as lights (except if they're made in Ch___, in which case they may move).

Two, open a website like The Wire, The Print, The Quint, Scroll, or any graph from DIU of India Today, and hold it near the switch board.

Electrons, on sensing a force way more negative than themselves, will drift back and may even become protons.

Take out those diyas now. //