Everything is made of atoms
To understand electricity, it's important to know something about atoms. Atoms are the building blocks of the universe. Everything in the universe is made of atoms—every star, every tree, and every animal. The human body is made of atoms. Air and water are made of atoms too. Atoms are so small that millions of them would fit on the head of a pin.
Atoms are made of even smaller particles
The center of an atom is called the nucleus. The nucleus is made of particles called protons and neutrons. Electrons spin around the nucleus in shells a great distance from the nucleus. If the nucleus was the size of a tennis ball, the atom would be the size of a sphere about 1,450 feet in diameter, or about the size of the largest sports stadium in the world. Atoms are mostly empty space.
If an atom could be seen with the naked eye, it would look a little like a tiny center of balls surrounded by giant invisible bubbles (or shells). The electrons would be on the surface of the bubbles, constantly spinning and moving to stay as far away from each other as possible. Electrons are held in their shells by an electrical force.
The protons and electrons of an atom are attracted to each other. They both carry an electrical charge. Protons have a positive charge (+) and electrons have a negative charge (-). The positive charge of the protons is equal to the negative charge of the electrons. Opposite charges attract each other. An atom is in balance when it has an equal number of protons and electrons. The neutrons carry no charge and their number can vary.
The number of protons in an atom determines the kind of atom, or element, it is. An element is a substance consisting of one type of atom (the Periodic Table shows all the known elements), all with the same number of protons. Every atom of hydrogen, for example, has one proton, and every atom of carbon has six protons. The number of protons determines which element it is.
Electricity is the movement of electrons between atoms
Electrons usually remain a constant distance from the nucleus in precise shells. The shell closest to the nucleus can hold two electrons. The next shell can hold up to eight. The outer shells can hold even more. Some atoms with many protons can have as many as seven shells with electrons in them.
The electrons in the shells closest to the nucleus have a strong force of attraction to the protons. Sometimes, the electrons in an atom's outermost shells do not have a strong force of attraction to the protons. These electrons can be pushed out of their orbits. Applying a force can make them move from one atom to another. These moving electrons are electricity.
Static electricity exists in nature
Lightning is a form of electricity. Lightning is electrons moving from one cloud to another or electrons jumping from a cloud to the ground. Have you ever felt a shock when you touched an object after walking across a carpet? A stream of electrons jumped to you from that object. This is called static electricity.
Have you ever made your hair stand straight up by rubbing a balloon on it? If so, you rubbed some electrons off the balloon. The electrons moved into your hair from the balloon. The electrons tried to get far away from each other by moving to the ends of your hair. They pushed against or repelled each other and made your hair move. Just as opposite charges attract each other, like charges repel each other.