It's SO easy to flip a switch in your house and have your lights turn on, but have
you ever wondered what's behind that simple act? Playing the Powerline game will
teach you.
The electricity that powers your light bulbs might have traveled hundreds of miles
to get from the power plant that generated it all the way to your house.
Electricity travels best through metal wires. If you look around the outside of the house
or building where you live, you might see several thick wires coming from a nearby
utility pole. Those are the wires carrying electricity into your house.
The amount of energy electricity a wire carries depends on the voltage and current
in that wire. Voltage is measured in volts, and current is measured in amps.
If you multiply the voltage and the current in a wire, you get the total energy power being carried.
Power = Voltage x Current
Some energy is lost in power lines as the electricity travels through. It turns out
that the higher the voltage, the less energy is lost, so engineers like to use the
highest possible voltages in power lines. But, those high voltages are dangerous, so
as the electricity lines near places where people live, the voltage is reduced.
How do you reduce the voltage in a wire? You use a transformer. If a transformer
reduces the voltage in a wire by half, it will double the current, so the energy
stays the same.
Engineers place transformers in Electrical Substations along the wires that bring
electricity from the Power Plant to your house.
The Power Grid consists of Power Plants 
,
Electrical Substations, and places where electricity is used.
HOW TO PLAY
In this game, you will measure the voltage and current at various points in the
Power Grid to help you understand how electricity is efficiently delivered
to your home.
Your first job is to measure the voltage and current at each interesting point
in the Power Grid. To do that, drag the meter to each point of interest.
The meter will record the voltage and current flowing at that point in the circuit
for you. Click on the reading and compute the Power at each point. Completing
this for all 28 interesting points will earn you
the Powerline Technician badge.
Once you have measured all the voltages and currents and computed the power,
answer the questions about the measurements you have just taken.
If you answer correctly, you'll earn the Powerline Engineer badge.
What are you waiting for? Start playing!
