ELECTRIC BASICS: Voltage and Resistance

Take a straw and line up peas in it. Think of the straw as an electric wire going into your house. The electrons are the peas. But the peas will just sit there unless you do something. Blowing in the straw will move the peas or electrons. The harder you blow, the faster the peas will move. The force that moves the electrons is called voltage.

If the inside of the same straw is covered with honey, the peas are going to be very, very sticky. And what happens when you blow on them? It's going to take a lot of huffing and puffing to move those peas or electrons. That's because the honey is holding them back. That's resistance.

A wire made out of copper is like the straw without honey. All you have to do is blow and the peas move right through. That's low resistance.

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