What are wires?

Wires are like messengers that help electricity travel from one place to another.

Imagine you have a toy phone, and when you press a button, it sends a message to your friend's toy phone across the room. Wires work kind of like that, they send electricity, which is like a special kind of energy, from a battery or a power outlet all the way to a lightbulb, a TV, or even your tablet.

Wires are usually long, skinny tubes made of metal, like a really thin, bendy straw. If you touch one, it might feel cool and smooth, almost like the outside of a pencil. Inside this tube is another material that helps electricity move more easily.

Think about your toy phone again, if there was no wire connecting it to the other phone, the message wouldn’t get through! Wires are like invisible roads for electricity. Without them, your lightbulb wouldn’t turn on, and your favorite video game wouldn’t work.