Basic electricity is described in many ways.

When an
electric circuit flows through a conductor, a magnetic
field (or "flux") develops around the conductor. The
highest flux density occurs when the conductor is
formed into a coil having many turns. In electronics and
basic electricity, a coil is usually known as an inductor.
If a steady DC current is run through the coil, you would
have an electromagnet - a device with the properties of
a conventional magnet, except you can turn it on or off
by placing a switch in the circuit.
Basic Electrical Theory
There are four basic electrical quantities that we need
to know:
Current
Potential Difference (Voltage)
Power
Resistance
Electrical Current
Current is a flow of charge. Each electron carries a
charge of 1.6 10-19 coulombs. This is far too small to
be any use, so we consider electricity to flow in packets
called coulombs. When there is a flow of 1 coulomb per
second, a current of 1 amp is flowing. Current is
measured in ampres, or amps (A).
Potential Difference
Potential difference is often referred to as voltage.
There are several ways of defining voltage; the correct
physics definition is energy per unit charge, in other
words, how big a job of work each lump of charge can
do.

Power in a Circuit
Power in a circuit can be worked out using the simple
relationship:
Power (W) = Voltage (V) Current (A)
Electrical Resistance
This is the opposition to the flow of an electric current.
There's reciprocity in the interaction between electron
flow and magnetism. If you sweep one pole of a magnet
quickly past an electrical conductor (at a right angle to
it), a voltage will be momentarily "induced" in the
conductor. The polarity of the voltage will depend upon
which pole of the magnet you're using, and in which
direction it sweeps past the conductor.
This phenomenon becomes more apparent when the
conductor is formed into a coil of many turns.

Figure 1 shows a coil mounted close to a magnet that

is spinning on a shaft. As the north pole of the magnet
sweeps past the coil, a voltage is induced in the coil,
and, if there is a "complete" circuit, current will flow. As
the south pole of the magnet sweeps past, a voltage of

opposite polarity is induced, and current flows in the

opposite direction.
This relationship in basic electricity is the fundamental
operating principle of a generator. The output, known
as alternating current, is the type of power that electric
utility companies supply to businesses and homes. A
practical generator would likely have two coils mounted
on opposite sides of the spinning magnet and wired
together in a series connection. Because the coils are in
a series, the voltages combine, and the voltage output
of the generator will be twice that of each coil.

Figure 2 is a graph of the voltage produced by such a

generator as a function of time. Let's assume that this
happens to be a 120-volt, 60-Hz generator. The voltage
at one point in the cycle momentarily passes through 0
volts, but it's headed for a maximum of 169.7 volts.
After that point, the voltage declines, passing through 0
volts, then reverses its polarity, and has a negative
"peak" of -169.7 volts.
This curve is known as a sine wave since the voltage at
any point is proportional to the sine of the angle of
rotation. The magnet is rotating 60 times a second, so

the sine wave repeats at the same frequency, making

the period of a single cycle one-sixtieth of a second.
Electricity appears in two forms: alternating current
(AC) and direct current (DC). Direct current does not
change directions-- the electron flow is always from the
negative pole to the positive pole-- although as we
mentioned before, the electrons themselves don't really
"move," it's the holes that are created that "move."
Direct current is almost always what is used inside of
electronic devices to power the various internal
components, but it is a harmful thing in audio signals,
which are alternating current. Alternating current does
change direction-- standard household electricity is
alternating current, because of its flexibility in traveling
long distances. It changes direction at a specific
frequency-- 60 times per second, or 60 Hz (in the
United States, Japan, and a couple of other countries; in
Europe the standard is 50 Hz). Audio signals vary their
direction-alternation according to the frequency in
question.
AC - ALTERNATING CURRENT
Alternating current or AC electricity is the type of
electricity commonly used in homes and businesses
throughout the world.
While the flow of electrons through a wire in direct
current (DC) electricity is continuous in one direction,
the current in AC electricity alternates in direction. The
back-and-forth motion occurs between 50 and 60 times
per second, depending on the electrical system of the
country.
AC is created by an AC electric generator, which
determines the frequency. What is special about AC
electricity is that the voltage in can be readily changed,

thus making it more suitable for long-distance

transmission than DC electricity. But also, AC can
employ capacitors and inductors in electronic circuitry,
allowing for a wide range of applications.
DC - DIRECT CURRENT
In a direct-current system, it's easy to determine
voltage because it is nonvarying or varies slowly over
time. You can simply make a measurement with a DC
voltmeter. But in an AC circuit, the voltage is constantly
changing.
Electrical engineers state the voltage of an AC sine
wave as the RMS (root-mean-square), a value equal to
the peak value of the sine wave divided by the square
root of two, which is approximately 1.414. If you know
the RMS voltage, you can multiply it by the square root
of two to calculate the peak voltage of the curve. If you
were to power a light bulb from 120V(RMS) AC, you
would get the same amount of light from the bulb as
you would by powering it from 120V DC. Yet another
device uses electromagnetic induction: the transformer.
Just as an iron core improves the inductance of a coil, it
has the same positive effect in a transformer, and most
power transformers are wound on iron cores.
In order to understand how electricity is created and
works it is necessary to look at how all matter is
structured. All matter is made up of molecules that
have a certain number of atoms, for example one
molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hydrogen
and one of oxygen giving a symbol of H 2 O. All other
matter also has a symbol like this and is made up of
atoms.

To be able to understand electricity however, the atom

must be broken down even further into a nucleus,
electrons and protons. The nucleus is made up of
positively charged protons and neutrally
charged neutrons that generally balance the number
of negatively charged electrons,which are moving
around the nucleus in a similar manner to the planets
circling the sun.
The outer ring of electrons is called the Valency
Shell and the electrons contained in this ring are
called Valence Electrons. These are the electrons
which are knocked or forced out to form a flow of
electricity. If one or more electrons are moved out of
the the atom it will leave the atom with more protons
than electrons, which means that the atom will be
positively charged.
One rule that is very prevalent in all forms of
electricity, and also magnetism, is that like
charges, or poles, repel and unlike charges, poles,
will attract. This means that a positively charged
object will attract a negatively charged one, but if
both charges are the same then they will repel
each other.