Led by Michael Faraday Simulacrum
About this course
Electricity is the most consequential invention of the nineteenth century. In 1800 it was a laboratory curiosity involving frog legs and glass rods. By 1900 it lit cities, drove trams, and carried voices across oceans. The physics that made this possible was worked out by a small number of extraordinary people in the space of about eighty years — and the whole of GCSE Electricity is their legacy, condensed.
This course follows AQA specification 8463, section 4.2 in full, including the physics-only section on static electricity and electric fields. Six simulacra drawn from the century of discovery take the modules in turn. Ampère opens with charge and current — his name is on the unit. Ohm takes resistance. Maxwell takes series and parallel circuits — he systematised their analysis. Tesla takes domestic mains supply and safety — the alternating-current infrastructure we live inside is his. Faraday takes power and the National Grid — transformers are his 1831 discovery. Coulomb closes the course on static electricity and electric fields, where the non-contact force obeys his inverse-square law.
Required Practicals 3 (resistance factors) and 4 (I–V characteristics) are treated within Module 2. Higher Tier content is flagged inline. Section 4.2.5 is physics-only (triple science) and sits in the final module, where it can be studied or skipped without disrupting the course's narrative.
Led by André-Marie Ampère Simulacrum
The question
What is an electric current, and what does it mean to draw one on paper?
Outcome
The student can draw and interpret a circuit diagram using standard symbols, state the relationship between charge, current, and time, and apply Q = It in both directions. (AQA 4.2.1.1, 4.2.1.2)
Led by Georg Simon Ohm Simulacrum
The question
What determines how much current flows through a component for a given potential difference?
Outcome
The student can apply V = IR, distinguish ohmic from non-ohmic behaviour, sketch and interpret I–V curves for the four components in the spec, carry out Required Practicals 3 and 4, and name practical applications of thermistors and LDRs. (AQA 4.2.1.3, 4.2.1.4)
Led by James Clerk Maxwell Simulacrum
The question
What happens to current, potential difference, and resistance when we connect components in series versus parallel?
Outcome
The student can state the rules for series and parallel circuits, explain qualitatively why they differ, construct both types from a diagram, and calculate currents, potential differences, and resistances in series circuits using the concept of equivalent resistance. (AQA 4.2.2)
Led by Nikola Tesla Simulacrum
The question
What actually comes out of a wall socket, and why is it genuinely dangerous?
Outcome
The student can distinguish direct from alternating pd, state the frequency and voltage of the UK mains supply, identify the three wires in a mains cable and their colour codes, and explain the safety role of the earth wire and the hazards of live-wire contact. (AQA 4.2.3.1, 4.2.3.2)
Led by Michael Faraday Simulacrum
The question
How is the energy you pay for on the electricity bill actually delivered — and why does it travel at hundreds of thousands of volts to arrive at 230?
Outcome
The student can apply all four power and energy equations, reason about appliance energy use from power ratings and time, and explain why the National Grid uses step-up and step-down transformers to transfer energy efficiently over distance. (AQA 4.2.4.1, 4.2.4.2, 4.2.4.3)
Led by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Simulacrum
The question
Why does rubbing a balloon on your hair make it stick to a wall, and what is the invisible thing that connects a charged object to its surroundings?
Outcome
The student can describe the production of static electricity by triboelectric charging, explain attraction and repulsion of charges as non-contact forces, draw the electric field pattern around an isolated charged sphere, and use the field concept to explain electrostatic phenomena including sparking. (AQA 4.2.5.1, 4.2.5.2)