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Re: electricity

On Thu, 9 Aug 2001, brian whatcott wrote:

electricity is the term used in connection
with observations of the following kinds:

A comb run through the hair can pick up paper chips.
A magnet moved close to a coil of wire makes a meter jump.
Combs or coils of wire can make a fat spark jump through the air.
A copper wire and a zinc scrap dipped in a weak acid solution of water
can make a compass turn that's placed near a connecting wire.

Or more specifically: "electricity is a class of phenomena, a field of
science." No? If so, then batteries involve "electricity" like the earth
involves "geology" and the atmosphere "weather." In that case electricity
never cam flow or be stored, any more than you can have a bucket full of
"geology." You can have a bucket full of rocks, or a metal full of
electrons. And in that case the electrons *are* the electricity, just
like the rocks are the geology. But in that case the wires and batteries
and light bulbs *are* the electricity too. Electricity becomes nothing
but a chapter heading which could easily be eliminated entirely, and
instead called "electromagnetism." This is what I mean when I say that
electricity does not exist.

We agree that an entity named "biology" doesn't really exist. It's just a
way that we divide up science and phenomena so we can handle them. You
can take animals apart all your life yet never see any particles of
"biology." Why is it such a problem to also admit that "electricity"
doesn't exist? That "electricity" is nothing but a chapter heading more
accurately called "electromagnetism?"


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