Exploring How Has Electricity Changed Our Lives

Introduction

The most significant discovery made by humans is the one that is useful in our everyday lives as humans, hence the word significant. Significant simply means that a substance and discussion is crucial enough to have an effect or to be noticed according to the oxford dictionary. This definition of significant helps us understand that in all discoveries made by humans, the most crucial one if we were to judge, is the one that is mostly noticed and have a massive impact on humanity. Petr, H. gives us 25 biggest scientific discoveries made by mankind and emphasizes that he has listed them not according their rankings because it is “difficult (if not impossible)” to rank them based on their importance. This means that most of the discoveries made by humans have the same significance in our lives. Petr. H also mentions electricity in his list of the biggest scientific discoveries made by mankind, which I view as the most significant discovery above all the other mentioned discoveries. I am going to prove in this essay how has electricity changed our lives by looking at how it has shaped the scientific world, our everyday lives, and how it continues to be involved in our modern innovations.

Evolution of Electricity

To understand the concept of electricity and its’ significance, we must first look at how it came about and how it was developed. This will help us understand why electricity is so significant in our lives. Atkinson, N. (2014) article about who discovered electricity, claims that electricity was first discovered 600 BC by the Ancient Greeks who discovered static electricity. The study of electricity was then improved by many scientists ever since the 1600s, including William Gilbert, Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday and the list goes on. This led to confusion of many people concerning who really discovered electricity according to Atkinson, but the reality is that, all these scientists played a huge role in bringing the light into the world which was invented by Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan. The two scientist, Edison and Swan invented the first incandescent filament light bulb in 1878, which was the first light that was able to stay shining for hours, even though light bulbs were already invented by others according to Atkinson. The era of electricity having an impact on mankind then started.

Electricity and How It Changed Medicine and Communication

Doctors are known as the one group of people that play God due to their ability of bringing back life to people to an extent that Bernie Siegel once said, “doctors are busy playing God”. Electricity surprisingly is also involved to the doctors’ power of healing the sick and reanimating the dead. Browne, A. (2014). Its’s electrifying! Medical uses of electricity. New York Hisrotical Society mentions that Dr James Bryan used electric belts and harnesses, made in New York to relief patients from nervous prostration, hysteria and disorders of the kidneys, liver, lungs, spine and of the brain. What is more significant than a healthy life of a human being? Electricity is the most significant discovery made by mankind because it can give back life to the very mankind that discovered it. It is the electric shock in the defibrillator that has the power to reanimate the heart of a nearly dead person back to life, see Who invented defibrillator (2016) for more information on the defibrillator device that is used to jump start a heart that has stopped beating. The main idea here is that electricity, like the antibiotics and DNA, is the human being discovery that is also used to better the human health.

Communication is one of the important aspects of humanity and it is what makes us humans according to Suddendorf, T. (2014). Electricity also took part in improving this aspect of the human life through the introduction of telephones, computers and cellphones, which enabled people to communicate from long distances. Cellphones and computers make use of batteries which must be charged every time they go low, and this requires a charger which requires electricity. Information Specialists explain why chargers get hot when charging cellphones and the volts, which are the force of electricity are the main key for charging the cellphones. This means that without electricity, the charges cannot charge cellphones and computers, which means that they will be a breakdown in communication between human beings that are in large distances apart.

Petr, H. (2017) also mentioned that mankind discovered that earth is round and counts this discovery in his list of the 25 biggest discoveries made by humanity, he mentions gravity and Copernican Heliocentrism. These discoveries are part of earth science and help mankind to understand the universe according to an article by Hobart M. King titled What Is Earth Science. Life without the knowledge that earth is round and after knowing that it is round did not make life easy for humanity in anyway but only gave humanity some “common knowledge” according to Hogenboom, M. (2016). We have known that Earth is round for over 2000 years.

Electricity in Our Lives

Electricity on the other hand has had a huge impact in both common knowledge and in our everyday lives. Watkins, K. (2015) touches on the countries that do not have electricity in Africa in his article, he also mentioned that throughout history, electricity has fueled the growth that has created jobs, eliminated poverty and enhanced the quality of lives. The most significant discovery made by humans must be electricity, because at all costs, it just keeps making the lives of human beings productive, based on the given evident above. However, I will provide more evident by looking at the impact that electricity has on our everyday lives.

In our homes, we use electricity “virtually” every single minute of the day said Wilson, L. (2013). Wilson also gives out in percentages, how electricity is being consumed in some of the Europe countries. He mentions heating and cooling, lights, water heating, cooking, entertainment and washing. Some things are more important than others, but the point is, electricity is needed for all these activities to take place. According to Williams, C. Rural life was hard before electricity. Without electricity, people are without heated water, will need to use woods and cook outside, would have limited light in their homes. In short, life would be as difficult as it was, when there was no electricity. Which proves then that electricity has a lot of impact in the comfortable life that the human beings are living in today, making electricity the most significant discovery made by humans.

Before I make conclusions on this topic, we will have a look at what Anderson, C. (2012) had to say about the significance of electricity in our everyday life. Anderson says that there is no work out there that does not make use of electricity and I quote, “There is none”, after asking a rhetorical question about which work available, that does not make use of electricity. According to Anderson, without electricity these days companies cannot run efficiently, meaning that if electricity was to be taken away from people, a lot of companies would collapse, and a lot of people would be jobless. This proves that electricity is still significant today even more than it was when it was first being discovered.

Significance of Electricity in Transportation

Anderson also tells us about the significance of electricity in transportation. She says that, because electricity is eco-friendly, it is being now transformed to transportation systems in many countries to replace by-product gases like carbon, which are produced by the cars in our present days. The problem with these gases is that they cause air pollution which leads to global warming and electricity would be a great replacement to execute such negative impacts of cars in the environment according to Anderson. He also added and said that electric cars are the future of transportation. This is evident again, that the electrical study is still growing and expanding the scientific world, making electricity the most significant discovery made by humans. Electricity was significant in the past, it is still useful today according to Anderson and FleetCarma Staff claim that it will be even more significant in the future, by moving into the world of transportation. Electric cars cost less than gas cars according to the Fleetcarma Staff, which gives electricity a good image when compared to other discoveries. Electricity is showed as one of the discoveries that can make a difference in the human beings’ life while eliminating the worries of humanity more than adding worries and hardship.

Food and water are very crucial in a human body, to keep healthy hence doctors usually say, an apple a day, keeps the doctor away. They were mainly emphasizing on the importance of keeping healthy. Electricity has had it way into food production as well according to the same article of Anderson mentioned above. “The food industry also needs power to operate”, said Anderson. Food today is produced using machines in industries to speed up the process of its’ production according to Anderson. These machines used in the food industry function through electricity. We have seen in restaurants and in any other fast food facility, that food is now being made using stoves, which use electricity. Anderson also makes us imagine a fast food facility that is not using electricity. She says that we would have to wait hours for our meal to be served. However, electricity intervenes as the time saver. Electricity also makes the work for the cook to be easier because they do not have to go out and collect woods, start the fire for the business to start making money, but with an electric stove, time is saved, and money is made faster.

According to all the evident given above, electricity is the one discovery out of the twenty five given by Petr that has helped shape the scientific world by being involved in medical sciences, in the mechanical technology of cars by introducing electric cars that will help reduce air pollution and giving humans a comfortable life every day. Anderson also said that life with electricity was never imagined hundreds of years ago but now, life without electricity is hard to imagine. This is mainly because electricity has taken over a huge portion of human life. It has taken over in our homes, workplaces and now it is taking over our transportation. The most significant discovery must be the one that influences human life and noticeable according to the definition of significant and electricity has met every word in the definition of significant.

Conclusion

Every discovery is important like Petr said, but if rankings were to be made, electricity would take the first place because it continues to be significant on humans ever since it was discovered. Electricity came from only producing the first light that lasts for hours through Edison, to making humans communicate in long distances, to being involved in transportation systems. Electricity, above any other discovery has evolved greatly from the time it was first discovered, hence it is the most significant discovery made by humans.

References

1. Petr, H. (2017). 25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries in The History of Mankind. [Blog] List25. Available at: https://list25.com/25-biggest-scientific-discoveries-in-history-of-mankind/
2. Atkinson, N. (2014). Who Discovered Electricity. [Blog] UNIVERSE TODAY. Available at: https://www.universetoday.com/82402/who-discovered-electricity/ [Accessed 3 Mar.2014]
3. Browne, A. (2014). Its’s electrifying! Medical uses of electricity. [Blog] NEW-YORK-HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Available at: blog.nyhistory.org/electric-medicine/ 
4. Suddendorf, T. (2014). What Separates Us From the Animal. [online] SLATE. Available at: https://slate.com/technology/2014/03/the-science-of-what-separates-us-from-other-human-imagination-and-our-ability-to-share-imaginative-scenarios-with-others.html
5. Information Specialists (2017). Why Does My Cellphone Charger Get So Hot? [Blog] Information Specialists. Available at: infospecialist.maemaemae.xyz/2017/04/01/cell-phone-charger-heats-up/
6. Hogenboom, M. (2016). We have known that Earth is round for over 2000 years. BBC [online]. Available at: www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160126-how-we-know-earth-is-round 
7. Watkins, K. (2015). Imagine life without electricity- that’s the reality for two-thirds of Africa and the results are devastating. [online] INDEPENDENT. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/imagine-life-without-electricity-thats-the-reality-for-two-thirds-of-africa-and-the-results-are-10300033.html
8. Wilson, L. (2013). How do we use electricity? [Blog] Grist. Available at: https://grist.org/climate-energy/how-do-we-use-electricity/ 
9. Williams, C. Rural life was hard before electricity. [online]. Available at: www.paynesvillearea.com/news/turnofcentury/turnofcentury030800.htm
10. Anderson, C. (2012). Importance of Electricity- How It Changed People’s Lives. [online] Articles Factory. Available at: articlesfactory.com/article/science/importance-of-electricity-how-it-changed-peoples-lives.html
11. FleetCarma Staff. (2017). Unlisted: Top 12 Reasons Why Electric Cars Are Better Than Gas Cars. [Blog] fleetcarma. Available at: https://www.fleetcarma.com/why-electric-cars-are-better-than-gas-top/