Electricity & Magnetism
The Electrician of Philadelphia: How Benjamin Franklin Gave Electricity Its Language
A self-taught printer becomes the most famous scientist of his era — the Copley Medal, honorary degrees, and a nickname, "the electrician," used across Europe. Students trace the terms Franklin coined (charge, battery, positive/negative), plus the accidental discovery that led his colleague Joseph Priestley to propose the inverse-square law for electric force decades before Coulomb proved it. 3 multiple-choice and 3 extended-response questions.
Open Reading Passage
Electricity & Magnetism
The Stone That Points North: A History of Magnetism in Human Hands
A two-thousand-year chain of discovery — from Chinese lodestone compasses, to physician William Gilbert's miniature magnetic "Earth," to the twitching compass needle that led Hans Christian Oersted to link electricity and magnetism for good. Students trace that same physics into everyday technology: electric motors, microphones and speakers, credit card stripes, MRI machines, maglev trains, and hard drives. 3 multiple-choice and 3 extended-response questions.
Open Reading Passage
Electricity & Magnetism
The Light and the Lightning: The Mind of Nikola Tesla
A physicist-turned-storyteller traces the brilliantly tragic life of Nikola Tesla — the eidetic memory that let him engineer machines entirely in his head, the brutal "War of the Currents" that pit his alternating current against Thomas Edison's direct current, the 50-foot Colorado Springs coil, and the doomed Wardenclyffe Tower that aimed to beam free wireless power across the world. 3 multiple-choice and 3 extended-response questions.
Open Reading Passage