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This is a really good question. There is a number of ways to answer this, with varying degrees of correctness. The simple answer is, electricity is stored in batteries, or capacitors, as a separation of charges. But in reality, the answer is FAR more complex than that. Electrons are credited with the negative charge that we associate with electricity. However, just the presence of electrons is not necessarily electricity. Electrons are all around us, and inside us. Every atom is surrounded with at least one electron. Whether a particular atom, or material is capable of storing, or conducting electrons is determined by the valence shell (the outer "ring" or electrons) of the atom. Electrical "energy" is when an electron is forced away from it's normal "orbit" of the atom its attached to. If the electron passes it's extra energy to another electron, either in the same atom, or a nearby atom, or it "jumps" to a neighboring atom and displaces another electron (which then "carries" the energy). So, to store electrical energy, we need to keep the electrons either in a state of "displacement" or keep them "jumping" from atom to atom constantly. Capacitors achieve this be separating the atoms with the extra electrons from the atoms that would otherwise receive them. When a conducting material (that can receive those extra electrons) touches those atoms with the extra electron energy and touches the atoms that would receive them, the electron energy rushes to the receiving atoms. A battery stores the energy quite differently however. A use once batter (non-rechargeable) utilizes a chemical reaction to create an "electron pump" that creates a lot of excess electron energy at one terminal, and can receive them at the other terminal. A rechargeable battery does the same thing, but by forcing electrical charge back into the terminal that pumps the electron energy out, the chemical reaction can be reversed, usually almost completely. I hope this has helped.

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16y ago

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