Loading ...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 pose the question to an electrician.
Like all GREAT science projects, her question leads her to learning more about “stored” electricity. Batteries have stored electricity, of course. Take a quick trip to the Home Depot and look at the yard lights that run off of solar energy. In this case, the sun’s energy is turned into electricity that is stored in batteries to power the lights at night. “Green Homes” are using solar panels built into the roof tiles to convert solar energy to electricity that is stored in huge batteries in the basement to supplement the need for electricity in the house. As the price of these “photovoltaic” cells goes down, their usage in the home building process will go up, I hope.
In my opinion, your daughter came up with a brilliant question and with your help her question will lead her to a new discovery focused around the science of stored energy. Be sure to document this “discovery” process in her final report… because this is EXACTLY what science is all about. She’s engaged in the scientific discovery process! Please keep her fire burning and keep me posted as to her progress. I’d love to share her project with other teachers who contribute to my blog. — Steve
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