Where do the electrons come from when an electric generator is making electricity? Is from the air? Would a generator work in a vacuum? Electrons have mass so where would they be pulled from if there is nothing?
[Physics] Where do electrons in electricity come from
electric-currentelectricityelectrons
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Interesting, but I'm don't think you are asking the right questions in the context of law.
The point is that electrons and electricity are completely irrelevant when it comes to the question of "tangible" and "electronic" "goods". You will obtain a good answer only if you forget about electricity, which just happens to be a convenient physical carrier of information, and focus on the objects that might or might not be goods like a chair or a pen. A proper question would be this: "Is a newspaper article a good, like a chair or a pen?". Specifying whether the newspaper article is written on paper or "on electrons" or on something else is besides the point because the concept of "newspaper article" is entirely independent of the material it is written on.
To put it more pointedly: if you have to know the metaphysical nature of electricity to make a law about newspapers, you're definitely doing it wrong. ;-)
Keeping in mind that your questions and their answers are completely useless in the context of law, I can now proceed to answer them.
I don't know of any good analogy to electricity that captures it properly. It is like gravitation in that distant bodies attract each other, except that in electricity, bodies can also repel each other. Furthermore, the gravitational pull of, say, a chair is so small that we don't think of a chair as attracting us gravitationally. This is also why the water analogy doesn't work so well: water does not attract other water from afar. The "cause" for attraction/repulsion is the electrical charge.
The carriers of charge, like electrons or ions (= atoms with electrons missing) do have a mass. You can think of them as tiny, charged balls flying around through space (keep in mind that a copper wire consist of mostly empty space, too). On the other hand, electrical current does not have a mass, just like a water current does not have a mass, it simply doesn't make sense. (Both imply a mass current, however.) Likewise, electricity is a general term and does not have a mass, just like "law" and "liberty" don't have a mass.
The mass of a copper wire is the sum of the masses of its constituents, some of which are electrons. However, the number electrons exiting a copper wire is usually the same as the number of electrons entering the copper wire, so its mass does not change. In any case, the mass of electrons is way too small to make more than a negligible contribution to the total mass of the wire anyway.Again, "electricity" is a general term. The link you mentioned refers to electric current, which is the same as flow of charge. Basically, the link says that electrons are not the only tiny balls that carry a charge. This is indeed the case. It's just that in the common case of metals, electrical current is usually carried by electrons.
This question is not well-posed. Again, electricity is a very general term and encompasses things like electric field, electric current, electric charge etc. For instance, light is part of electricity as well, because it's an electromagnetic wave.
In order for a current to flow steadily, you have to connect the conductor (copper in your case) to positive and negative poles of a battery. Then the electrons go from the copper to the positive pole of the battery - but - they are replaced by the electrons which come from the negative pole of the battery. Thus, the free electrons in copper are only needed to make it possible for current to flow, the copper itself is not depleted of electrons.
Best Answer
One can get electrons ( negative charges) and positive ions in static electricity. It demonstrates clearly that the neutral atoms are not indivisible. Friction can supply the force to extract electrons and leave the ions behind with positive charge as happens often when walking on rugs.
In electric generators
it is the electrons in metals that are being manipulated by the magnetic forces in the design, again separating the charges into an electron motion and positive ions. Metals have very loosely bound electrons which collectively belong to the Fermi sea and can generate the current of the electric generator.
So the answer is, atoms supply the electrons from their outer electron shells. It is the atoms in the generator that supply the electrons and yes, it would work in vacuum.