what's going on everyone and welcome back to electronics episode 2 in this episode we are going to talk about the two main types of current you have AC or alternating current and you have DC or direct current now the chances are if you are watching this video on a computer right now you're probably using both of these two types of current and we're going to get to that in a little bit but first of all where in the world can you find these two types of current in your everyday life well alternating current can be found most commonly in a wall outlet so in your house you know you have the little things on the wall that you plug stuff into it has either uh two or three little prongs on it you guys all know what a wall outlet is and these wall outlets output alternating current so wall outlets will give off alternating current when you plug something in it's taking alternating current DC or direct current however comes from things most commonly a battery so of course batteries they have the the little Plus on them and the minus sign and you got to plug them in the right way you guys all know what a battery is come on SO a battery gives off direct current now we're going to talk about why these two things are completely different in a little bit but let's get some more examples alternating current Powers things like a refrigerator or an electric stove big appliances so big appliances like that run on alternating current other electronic devices usually will run on Direct currents so your cell phone your computer all those things a flashlight anything that uses a battery is running on direct current now I'm sure some of you just stopped right there and said wait a second I plug my phone into the wall outlet every night to charge it well codmore you just said that a wall outlet gives off alternating current but my phone runs on direct current so what's the problem there well that brings me to my next Point alternating current can be converted into direct current and vice versa direct current can be converted into alternating current with the help of some special electronic devices so when you plug your phone in to the wall outlet at night so you plug your phone into the charger right and here's your here's your phone here phone what the charger actually does is it takes the alternating current coming out of the wall outlet it converts it into DC current direct current and then it gives it to your phone to charge the battery in your phone this is the same thing as for your computer you plug your computer or your laptop into the wall to charge it or to run your desktop computer or whatever well the computer is actually transferring or taking that altern and current converting it into a direct current and then that direct current is what runs your computer or your phone or anything like that so these two types of current can be converted into one another with the help of other electronic devices which we'll get to in the far future so now that you guys hopefully understand alternating and direct current and what they're used for what is the main difference between them well let's do this let me draw a little line here now this green line here is going to represent a regular wire so a wire that Electro that electricity is traveling through now when alternating current travels through a wire it's going to be traveling in this direction right it's going to be traveling that way and then uh-oh all of the sudden it's going to switch directions and it's going to begin traveling the other way then again it's going to switch directions and it's going to begin traveling this way again then very quickly it's going to begin traveling the other way if alternates which direction it travels on The Wire so alternating current is going to alternate or switch directions in which it's traveling and it happens many many many times every single second this electricity is switching directions on which way it's moving direct current on the other hand is going to move in One Direction the whole time it's not going to switch directions it's always going to go in the same direction in which you hooked up your circuit so alternating current switches directions many of times it'll go back and forth across wire direct current is going to go in One Direction only now of course there's a lot more behind all that stuff that I just said there's a lot more sciency stuff behind all that but for right now you guys just need to know that they can be converted into each other and alternating current switches the direction that it moves in and direct current travels in One Direction always now for the duration of this Electronics tutorial series we are mainly going to be using direct current we're going to talk about alternating current a little bit throughout the series but mainly we are going to be working with direct current only and that's because many small electronic components that we're going to be learning run on direct current and not alternating current so hopefully you guys learned a lot about alternating and direct current if you have any questions at all go down in the below in the comments post any questions either I or someone helpful in the comments we'll hopefully answer your question or get you guys to understand something more if you have problems with that thanks for watching everyone and I'll see you guys in the next Electronics episode