Ever since Benjamin Franklin went out with his kite during a thunderstorm, electricity has ruled the world. All you have to do to understand this is remember what it was like the last time the power went out overnight. Nothing worked. No computer, no fridge, and most importantly no TV. Electricity powers everything important in our lives, and when it fails, someone has to fix it, someone who knows what they’re doing, that is. Electricity has the power to make things work when it runs smoothly, but it can also burn things and kill people if used incorrectly. Of all the home accidents in this country, home electrical repairs rank second in accidents just after falling ladders; only home electrical repair accidents are more deadly than falls from ladders.

Good electricians are highly trained individuals with a lot of education and practical experience behind them. Before you reach into a fuse box or rewire the house for power, you should know a lot about electrical power: the way it moves, how it does what it does, the math and physics behind it, and much more. other things. Everyone feels a bit like an electrician just changing that blown fuse or plugging things in correctly or wiring that complicated TV/VCR/DVD/stereo entertainment center you just bought. You plug it in, you plug it in and somehow everything works with no sparks or problems and you feel like you could have been an electrician if you really wanted to. Wrong. There’s a world of difference between plugging things in and being an electrician.

For starters, the body of mathematics behind electrical work is impressive. Electricity is measured in volts and is a function of voltage, current, and resistance, all factors in a complex mathematical relationship. There are laws, not the building codes put in place by municipal governments to ensure the safety of homes and commercial buildings, but mathematical laws come with oddly shaped blackboards that prove how electricity will work under different circumstances. And there are unions. In fact, the Electrical Workers Union (EWU) is one of the strongest unions in America protecting the integrity of the profession from con artists and con artists.