Week 1

Right from the beginning it becomes obvious that electricity plays an important part throughout the module. Therefore, it would probably be advisable to repeat the basics of electronics and to ensure that all technical terms will be well understood.

Nowadays, electricity can be found in almost every part of our daily life. Living without electricity is unthinkable. Heating, lighting or powering appliances are significant areas of electricity usage. Increasingly important fields are also Communication and Information Technologies.

Electricity occurs in nature too. The most known appearance is probably lightening in thunderstorms. The lightning is actually the electrical discharge of the built up electrical charge within a cloud.

So far in our studies, most of us have probably not worked with electricity in terms of “making something move, make it blink or respond to a sensor”. Most of our activities were based on the usage of a computer, so actually building something seems quite exciting.

In our first lecture we were introduced to a tool, which is going to enable us to build something that could be artistic, functional or that simply attracts attention.

http://www.lanl.gov/news/albums/safety/Lightning.jpg

http://www.xmwallpapers.com/wallpaper/storms/lightning/images/Blue%20Lightning.jpg

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektrizität