Maybe title explains my question wrong so I’m hoping this will clarify.
With the understanding electricity is basically concentrated energy that can be converted to create power and that power can be converted to create light. electricity itself can create a form of light without being used for anything specific. Is it possible to use the light from wild electricity to create a fire using a magnifying glass like you would use the sun on a bright clear day? Obviously it would be dangerous to be close enough but is it possible?
In: Physics
> With the understanding electricity is basically concentrated energy that can be converted to create power
That is completely wrong due to a fundamental misunderstanding of electricity. Electricity is not some sort of solidified energy, it is simply the movement of electrons through a conductor.
Imagine your typical model of an atom, a dense nucleus of protons and neutrons surrounded by a cloud of electrons whizzing about. The nucleus is very strongly bound together but the electrons are much less firmly attached; there is a preferred number of electrons that are energetically favorable, but circumstances can cause more electrons than that to be attached to the atom or even strip some away. As electrons are negatively charged an excess of electrons imparts a negative charge to the atom and a lack of electrons imparts a positive charge.
Many materials can be formed by bonding together atoms by sharing electrons in order to reach their favored number of electrons, those groups being called molecules. However in the case of metals things are a bit more loose, where electrons are just allowed to somewhat freely drift around between nuclei like a big mixer party. This means that if you draw out a long wire of metal and shove electrons in one end then quickly the electrons on the other end are wanting to escape. That movement is electricity.
Now understand that the electricity is the **movement** of the electrons, it isn’t the electrons themselves. It is like conveying the pedaling of a bicycle to the wheels via a chain (the chain being the electrons in this analogy). The gears on the wheels aren’t somehow consuming the chain, they are just taking up the force of movement carried by the chain.
Movement of electrons conveys the power and resistance to its movement saps that energy away, typically in the form of heat. Everything which has a temperature emits some form of radiated energy such as infrared light, but if you get it hot enough it will be visible light. That is how an incandescent light bulb works.
Hopefully at this point you can understand how “wild electricity” isn’t really a thing and how a magnifying glass isn’t applicable to harnessing electricity.
I’m not sure I entirely understand the question, but I’m going to address a few things I think you’re getting at.
First, electricity absolutely can start fires. Lightning does it in nature, and electrical fires are a very real danger in human structures.
Second, there’s not really a magnifying glass equivalent for electricity in the way there is for light, thought you can certainly have multiple sources or paths of electricity converge at one point and combine. But an actual magnifying glass would have no effect (or rather, glass is a pretty decent insulator against electricity).
Third, the fact that we can use electricity to make light doesn’t translate into an electric charge and photons behaving similarly any more than water is similar to a mule because both can turn a millstone.
What do you mean by “wild electricity”? It’s not something that you just pick off the bushes in the forest. The closest thing to “wild electricity” is lightning and that by itself is enough to start a fire.
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