--- title: Batteries, circuits and how electricity flows — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Batteries, circuits and how electricity flows», a lesson of the physics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Electricity only flows when it has a complete loop to go round, from the battery, through the bulb and back again; that loop --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Physics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/) / Batteries, circuits and how electricit… # Batteries, circuits and how electricity flows Lesson 27 of the physics course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/0/) — Electricity only flows when it has a complete loop to go round, from the battery, through the bulb and back again; that loop is called a circuit. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/1/) — Push the switch on a torch and you close a gap in the loop, so the bulb lights; push it again and the gap opens, and the light goes out at once. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/2/) — A battery does not hold a tankful of electricity: it holds chemicals that push electricity round the loop, and when those chemicals are used up the battery is flat. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/4/) — When electricity squeezes through a thin wire it heats it up; that is how an old bulb glows, how a toaster browns bread, and why a charger feels warm. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/5/) — Electricity flows only round a complete loop called a circuit; a switch opens or closes a gap in that loop. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/6/) — A battery stores energy in chemicals and pushes electricity round the circuit until the chemicals are used up; a charger can push the chemicals of a rechargeable battery back. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/7/) — Two batteries in a row push about twice as hard as one, so more electricity flows; put in the wrong way round, they push against each other. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/8/) — Metals let electricity flow because they have loose electrons that can drift along; plastic, rubber and wood block it. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/9/) — The plastic coat on a wire stops the electricity escaping into whatever the wire touches. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/10/) — A thin wire resists the flow and gets hot: an old bulb's wire glows white hot, and a toaster's special wires glow orange on purpose. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/11/) — Modern LED bulbs waste much less energy as heat than old bulbs with a glowing wire. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/12/) — A fuse has a thin wire that melts if too much electricity flows, breaking the circuit before the wires in the walls overheat; plugging too many things into one socket can make too much flow and overheat it. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/13/) — In some strings of Christmas lights all the bulbs are in one loop, so one broken bulb stops the flow to all of them; newer strings give each bulb its own path. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/27-batteries-circuits-and-how-electricity-flows/14/) — A power station turns big machines that push electricity along wires on tall pylons to our homes, at very high voltage. - ← previous: [Static electricity: balloons, hair and sparks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/26-static-electricity-balloons-hair-and-sparks/) - next →: [Electricity and safety](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/28-electricity-and-safety/) - ↑ back to [Physics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/)