Carlos D. Santiago: Electricity

During our daily life we encounter many problems that involve physics.  These types of problems can be as simple as if a surface can stand the weight of a certain object to the internal force that are being applied to a system.  Physics can be defined as a natural science that consists on experiments, measurements, and mathematical analysis with the purpose of finding some physical laws for everything from the nanoworld to the planets, solar systems, and galaxies that occupy the universe. During this article I am going to talk about electricity, the most common power source used in our daily lives, from making our foods to watching television with our family members, but not many people know who discovered this useful resource we so much use. The person that discovered this was Benjamin Franklin, in 1752, on a stormy day, he raised his kite with a key tied near his hand and lightning struck the kite. The whole basic concept of the experiment was for the lighting to travel thought the kite in form of electricity. He could feel the electric shock go through his body. Ben had finally proven and understood lightning/electricity, so based on his knowledge later that year, he invented the lightning rod. The lightning rod, during that time, was a brilliant invention since by the time many of the structures where people used to live were made entirely out of wood and lightning used to burn there structures down. With the lighting rod, the lighting struck it and it would be conducted to the ground without harming anyone or anything. Thanks to Benjamin a lot of structures use this rod so any accident caused by lighting can be avoided. A structure without his invention is completely exposed to be struck by lightning and, in worst case scenario, could cause a fire to the structure, and depending the use that the structure was given for, whether it be shielding the homeless or jobless, leaving all the investment that were made on the structure to waste. In addition to all those damages, it could be guilty for the death of innocent people. Thanks to Benjamin Franklin for his discovery we are able to do our jobs and live our daily lives more easily and more successfully since many of the machines we use require electricity to work like the computer, the stove, the refrigerator, and many other appliances. Also, thanks to Franklin, we found even a greater power in the electricity and the many uses it has, for example, we have made developments in medicine with machines like the x-rays, the electrotherapy and the defibrillator.  Even thought Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity, what would have happened if he did not?  So I imagined a world without any computers, cellphones, nor electric appliances and how people would communicate if there was no electricity available. The only forms of communication would include mail, and the mail would be sent by horses and mail going from town to town. In addition to not being able to use any electronic appliances, the life span of a person from that society will be shorter than nowadays since the hospitals would be filled of bacterial diseases and the doctors will not have machines to benefit the health of their patient. What we know today as a simple disease thanks to machines, would have been a major viral disease in the past. For this reason, the discovery of Benjamin Franklin needs to be greatly appreciated by society. Thanks to his simple discoveries, we have all a lot of complex machines that simplify our daily lives.