Electricity 1

"Electric power is everywhere, present in unlimited quantities" – Nikola Telsa

Lightning on Saturn (NASA artist rendering):

On a distant planet, orbiting another star, 124 light years away, lightning crashes. Closer to home, lightning on Saturn is 10000x more powerful than what we have here. On Earth, huge trees can be ripped in half in milliseconds.

Electricity is at work at the micro scale too: the Electric Force is one of four fundamental forces that hold all matter together.

We live in an electric universe.

Humans have begun to harness this immense power.

In this course, we will begin to learn how to wield it ourselves. Although we'll only be getting the basic foundational knowledge, this will give us a lot more confidence in things like understanding the wiring in our houses, DC systems such as the ones in cars and give us some sense of what is going on in all manner of phenomena:

table saws – flipping a switch mysteriously causes a blade to spin
lightning
atomic structure
chemical bonds
static
when you "tap" your credit card, a tiny radio in your card somehow activates and sends a message to the payment terminal without batteries or any obvious power source

Electricity is an area of great mystery for most people. By the end of the seven days, you will have far more competence in this area than just about anyone you meet and you will soon see that even the people who speak confidently on this topic rarely know what they are talking about.

How does it work?

Deadlines: Taking this course is a commitment to your learning. There are deadlines. If you miss more than three of the seven deadlines you will be automatically removed from the course. You will still have all the course materials but you will no longer be in the work group. It is only 30 to 60 minutes per day, but everyone must be committed. The system will not let you procastinate all the work until the last day. You must do a little each day.
Daily lesson and and exercises: You do not have to show up to any video call or anything. It's simple: Every day there is a new lesson and corresponding exercises. You must complete the exercises before midnight each day.
Work group: You will submit your work to the workgroup website so you classmates can see. We learn from each other in this course. You are invited to help out your fellow classmates if they are struggling.
Help if you are confused about anything: I will be available in the workgroup website to answer questions in the comment threads. You will also have my phone number if you want to text me privately. We can also get on a call for extra help. If you are struggling, I will help and we'll figure it out together. No matter who you are, you will leave this course feeling accomplished and knowledgable.
Drawings over equations: The course is taught in illustrations / diagrams as much as possible. Where possible, I explain equations visually. But we will also use equations.
Analogies: Electricity can be hard to wrap our minds around since it is usually invisible, rarely matches our instinctive intutions and always resembles dark magic. I use many analogies to things you are familiar with, while also pointing out the limitations of the analogy. A common analogy for understanding electric circuits is water in pipes. We will make use of imperfect analogies to rapidly get a rough idea of what is going on.

Prerequisite

Basic algebra: Just the basic stuff you probably learned in Grade 9. Solving for X in simple equations.

Time

This course is a 7-day sprint. It is a micro course. I am condensing hundreds of hours of study that I have done into the most fundamental and useful concepts. It is the summary I wish I would have had when I naively thought I could figure this out in a month or so, and ended up spending literally hundreds more hours than I thought.

Duration: Dates TBA

Time commitment: 30 to 60 minutes per day.

Cost

$34 US // $45 CA

Enroll

If you can't make it this time, email me letting me know you'd like to be notified if this course runs again: lyndon@lyndonfroese.com