Electricity and Magnetism Study Guide
6th Grade Science
●This is diagram an example of a series circuit.
○Any break, or opening, in a series circuit causes the current to stop flowing through the entire circuit.
○A series circuit is an electric circuit that has only one path through which an electric current can flow.
●This diagram is an example of a parallel circuit.
○A parallel circuit is an electric circuit that has multiple paths that an electric current can flow through.
○If you turn off one light in a parallel circuit, the other lights will remain lit.
○Houses use parallel circuits for their electrical needs.
Be able the following diagrams.
Opposites attract
(arrows toward each magnet)
Like repel
(arrows point away from magnets)
●electric current - The movement of electrically charged particles, such as electrons.
●electromagnet - A temporary magnet made with a current-carrying wire coil wrapped around a magnetic core.
●magnetic force - A push or pull a magnetic field applies to either a magnetic material or an electric current.
●magnetic material - Any material that a magnet attracts.
●magnet - An object that attracts iron and other materials that have magnetic qualities similar to iron.
●magnetic domain - A region in a magnetic material in which the magnetic fields of all of the atoms point in the same direction.
●electric discharge - The loss of an unbalanced electric charge.
●voltage - The amount of energy used to move one coulomb of electrons through the circuit.
●electric resistance - The measure of how difficult it is for an electric current to flow in a material.
●generator - Machines that transform mechanical energy to electric energy.
●coulomb - the unit of measurement for an amount of electrons
●amps - the term for electrical circuits that is comparable to frequency for waves
●alternating current - the electric current produced by generators and constantly reverses direction
●direct current - an electric current that is produced by a battery and always flows in one direction
●electric field -the invisible region around any charged object
❖Basic parts of a circuit - lightbulb/resistor, battery/electric source, wires
❖When you rub a balloon against a wool sweater, the electrons transfer from the sweater to the balloon
❖When two objects touch, the object that holds electrons more tightly becomes negatively charged.
❖Objects become electrically charged when electrons move from one object to another.
❖A positively charged object must gain electrons in order to become electrically neutral.
❖A particle that has equal amounts of positive charge and negative charge is considered electrically neutral.