Where does all of the energy go?
I get lots of emails and questions as science fair projects near their deadline. Here’s a great question:
>Dear Steve, I am the mother of a 4th grader who has a science project due (just around the corner). She wants to know, “When an electrical appliance is unplug, what happens to the energy in the cord?” How can I help her to find her answer? She has been searching for two weeks and has not found an answer. I’ve tried to encourage her to pick another project and then to maybe continue working on this one (after the project is done) for next year. But she seems to think their is something to this one. Can you point me in the right direction????
Dear Lilly - Your daughter came up with an interesting question that only a kid would think about. The simple answer is that there is no “store” electricity in the cord once it’s unplugged. If an appliance has a “capacitor” in the circuit, there might be some residual electricity in the circuit but probably nothing that would easy for a young scientist to test. There really is no safe way for a child to test this other than to …
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