Alternating Current and Ac Electricity

Going through the day without seeing the effects of electricity in the everyday life human have become accustomed to would be a major feat. Electricity is the first thing experienced when waking up in the morning with an alarm clock, and the last thing experienced when going to bed at night after turning off the lights. Electricity is the basis for most necessary functions throughout the day from watching television, logging into a computer, and even storing the food used to prepare meals. None of this would be possible without electricity; this is why electricity has had the largest effect on life in this country.
Though electricity began with Ancient Greeks when they realized that rubbing amber created static electricity, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that Thomas Edison discovered the need to power the light bulb he improved upon. After opening the first commercial power plant, Edison was only able to distribute electricity to one square mile of Manhattan and so it was found that using direct current (DC) was not an ideal way to get electricity distributed across long distances. Around that same time, Nikola Tesla was diligently trying to master the alternate current (AC) motors and generators even though he was discouraged from doing so. After proving his invention to be a practical solution for this problem, George Westinghouse purchased Tesla’s patents and opened his first power plant that supplied AC electricity to parts of Massachusetts and New York. With AC being able to distribute over long distances, this was the obvious choice and is now used all over the world. With electricity being widely used, new inventions using this technology started to be developed. Soon the refrigerator, washing machine, clothes dryer, and vacuum cleaner were on the market using the very technology on which they existed.
In conclusion, now imagine a day without electricity. Being without electricity would force humans to find other methods of getting the same tasks done.