The Age of Invention
Jim Al-Khalili shows how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity transformed the world, allowing us to generate a vast amount of electric power.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the electrifying story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force - electricity. Until fairly recently, electricity was seen as a magical power, but it is now the lifeblood of the modern world and underpins every aspect of our technological advancements.
Without electricity, we would be lost. This series tells of dazzling leaps of imagination and extraordinary experiments - a story of maverick geniuses who used electricity to light our cities, to communicate across the seas and through the air, to create modern industry and to give us the digital revolution.
Just under 200 years ago scientists discovered something profound, that electricity is connected to another of nature's most fundamental forces - magnetism. In the second episode, Jim discovers how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity would completely transform the world, allowing us to generate a seemingly limitless amount of electric power which we could utilise to drive machines, communicate across continents and light our homes. This is the story of how scientists and engineers unlocked the nature of electricity in an extraordinary century of innovation and invention.
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Clips
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Preparing to receive a quarter of a million volts of electricity
Duration: 03:23
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Nikola Tesla鈥檚 Electrical Demonstration
Duration: 01:56
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Jim Al-Khalili |
Producer | Jon Eastman |
Director | Jon Eastman |
Series Producer | Steve Crabtree |
Executive Producer | Tina Fletcher-Hill |
Broadcasts
- Thu 13 Oct 2011 21:00
- Thu 13 Oct 2011 23:0091热爆 HD
- Fri 14 Oct 2011 00:30
- Fri 14 Oct 2011 04:10
- Sat 15 Oct 2011 23:1591热爆 HD
- Sat 14 Jan 2012 20:00
- Sun 15 Jan 2012 01:30
- Sun 6 May 2012 20:00
- Mon 7 May 2012 00:55
- Thu 15 Nov 2012 20:00
- Fri 16 Nov 2012 01:00
- Sat 17 Nov 2012 20:00
- Sun 18 Nov 2012 02:30
- Tue 24 Nov 2015 22:00
- Thu 26 Nov 2015 02:00
- Tue 2 May 2017 21:00
- Wed 3 May 2017 03:00
- Thu 23 Aug 2018 20:00
- Fri 24 Aug 2018 03:00
- Mon 8 Jun 2020 17:00Red Button One
- Tue 9 Jun 2020 18:00Red Button One
- Wed 10 Jun 2020 15:00Red Button One
- Wed 10 Jun 2020 20:00
- Thu 11 Jun 2020 02:55
- Thu 11 Jun 2020 16:00Red Button One
- Fri 12 Jun 2020 17:00Red Button One
Find out more about electricity with The Open University
Discover how much energy it takes to start up a range of objects in an interactive game.