HOW much electricity does it take to charge a mobile phone, turn a light on for an hour or leave the TV on standby for a week? And how does that compare to boiling the kettle just once, or doing a load of washing?

ANU solar panel researcher Dr Niraj Lal, or “Nij” as he likes to be known, will put all of this into perspective when he presents a fun show on the science of electricity at Questacon on Saturday, August 10, during National Science Week.

To do so, the experienced science communicator asks an audience member to “come on down” and play a version of “The Price is Right”, the old TV game show where the contestant had to arrange a list of prizes in order of their value, to win the lot.

“In the show I do the same thing, but with electricity,” says Nij. “I have a bunch of things that use electricity on the board and we play ‘The Kilowatt-hour is Right’. They ‘come on down’, and they have to arrange the items – things like charging a phone, doing a load of washing, boiling a cup of water, toasting some bread, watching TV for an hour or leaving the computer on for a day – in order of how much electricity they use. If they get it right they walk away with a fantastic prize.”

To make it a bit more fun, Nij encourages everyone to get involved and shout advice at the contestant about where each item should go, just like the host of the old game show.

“I also talk about electricity, to give people an idea of how electricity works and what’s actually going on at all these different power stations in Tumut or Newcastle to actually make electricity come through our walls,” he says, explaining what really is a pretty magical process.

“One of the most interesting facts that blew my mind is that 99 per cent of the world’s electricity is made by spinning magnets inside coils of wire. Coal-fired, gas-fired, nuclear, wind, hydro, all of these types of electricity are just ways of moving things through turbines, which just move magnets inside coils.”

But words only go so far, so he disappears inside the ANU’s engineering labs and comes back with a small coil of wire connected to a red LED light. Placing a super-powerful neodymium magnet inside and closing the ends, he shakes it around and the light flashes. But why?

“Thats a good question,” says Nij. “But it’s kind of a deep question really, and I think that the main answer is: it’s sort of just how the universe works, really. It’s just a strange fact of our universe that if you take a magnet and push it through a coil of wire, you can make electricity flow through the coil.”

It’s not that he doesn’t know the answer, it’s just one of those complicated ones involving things that are smaller than atoms, and it’s much more interesting to move on to another fascinating thing.

“So 99 per cent of electricity comes from moving magnets through coils, but solar cells are different. They take light and make it straight into electricity, just by using the magic properties of what are called semiconductors – light comes in, excites some charges and they just swim across the solar cell and they can be used in a circuit.”

Again, it gets pretty complicated, so he moves on to his own research about making solar panels work better and cost less. To explain, he picks up a slinky and a Tibetan singing bowl, but find out how, you’ll have to go to the show.

The Science of Electricity Show is at Questacon on Saturday, August 10 at 11am. For more information go to scienceweek.net.au

PHOTO: ANU solar panel researcher Dr Niraj Lal… “One of the most interesting facts that blew my mind is that 99 per cent of the world’s electricity is made by spinning magnets inside coils of wire.” Photo by Andrew Finch