Electricity is an AMAZING invention, and it's been around for longer than you might think! You probably know the basics - it powers our homes and our gadgets, you shouldn't mess with it because it's VERY dangerous, and it's hard to imagine life without it! Learn some fantastic facts about electricity with us - who knows, maybe you'll be shocked?!

For more science shenanigans, check out our fun facts about the human body, have a go at our planets quiz, or laugh your head off with some computer science jokes!

1. It's FAST!

Electricity travels at an amazing 186,000 miles per second - that's the speed of light!

2. Your body has electricity!

The human body uses electricity to function! Your nerves use electricity to send messages to your brain, and your heart uses electricity to beat - that's very important!

3. England has the oldest use of electricity in the world!

The world's first public electricity supply was in Godalming, Surrey, in late 1881. The streets were lit with electric light, which was a huge deal - people had never seen such a thing!

4. There's an Electric Avenue in London!

If you go to Brixton in South London you'll find Electric Avenue. It's called this because it was the first market street to be lit by electric lights. It gave its name to a famous song by Guyanese-British singer Eddy Grant, which is about the 1981 Brixton riot (and it's a serious banger).

5. There was an "electricity war"!

This story is kind of crazy! In the late 1880s there was a "war of currents" between Thomas Edison (an American inventor) and Nikola Tesla (a Serbian-American inventor). Tesla used to work for Edison's company, but broke away to pursue his own inventions, which Edison called "impractical". Both thought their way of producing electricity was better - Edison wanted the world to use DC (direct current), which flows constantly and needs a power grid close to its source to work. Tesla preferred AC (alternating current), which doesn't flow constantly. Edison won, mostly because he was a much better businessman than Tesla, who wanted to give his ideas away for free.

6. Iceland uses the most electricity annually!

Iceland uses an amazing 23% more electricity than the USA, despite having a much smaller population. This kind of makes sense - it's dark there for a lot of the year, and it also has industries producing goods.

7. There are so many ways to generate electricity!

Electricity is produced using natural resources, and some of the most popular ways include coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy. Coal and natural gas are both fossil fuels, with produce a lot of waste that's bad for the planet, and they'll run out eventually. Nuclear energy also produces a lot of waste that won't go away for thousands of years, and the impact of nuclear accidents can be HUGE (Chernobyl is one example, and the disaster at Fukushima in Japan is another). There are a lot of greener ways to make electricity, like hydroelectricity, wind and solar power!

8. Lightning is very common!

Did you know there are more than EIGHT MILLION lightning strikes across the world every single day? Despite this, it is very unlikely you'll be struck by lightning - the odds are less than one in a million, and about 90% of lightning strike victims survive. You can lessen your chances during an electrical storm by staying off landline phones, staying away from big bodies of water, and not going out with a lot of big metal equipment!

9. Bees are electric!

According to a recent survey, a swarm of bees can produce electrical fields comparable to those made by a thunderstorm!

10. It's used in medicine!

Electrocution is bad, but electricity in small doses can actually help people! The Victorians LOVED using electric cures, because it was a newfangled invention that they thought might solve everything! It was used as a cure for pains, skin diseases, and various ailments, with varying degrees of success. Nowadays it's still used to treat severe mental health disorders - it's called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). It doesn't hurt patients - they're given a general anaesthetic before they get it.

11. There is a "world's oldest lightbulb"!

The Centennial Light has been on since 1901 - that's an astonishing 122 years so far! It's in Livermore, California, and has only been turned off a few times since it was flipped on!