If you look at an electrical circuit board, you will notice that it has a lot of little components, all connected in a very complex way. The art and science of designing electronics is too complicated to go into here, but we can talk about some of the little components, what they look like, and what they do.
Capacitors are devices that store up electrical charge. Then the charge can be released all at once. The appearance of capacitors varies a lot, but many of them look like small ceramic beads. The unit associated with a capacitor is a farad.
Inductors are little coils of wire. They generate magnetic fields, and are used to make motors. The strength of an inductor is measured in a unit called a henry.
Resistors are small cylinders that often have stripes on them. The stripe colors indicate the strength of the resistor, which is given in ohms. Resistors will slow down the flow of electrons, called the current.
Transistors often look like little cylinders, tabs, or metal disks. They are often used to make increase the strength of an electrical signal or as a switch.
Integrated circuits contain lots and lots of other tiny electrical components, and they can do more complicated jobs than the other devices listed above. IC's, as they are often called, are usually black squares or rectangles, with a bunch of little metal legs.
Here's a computer simulation that will let you play around with constructing electrical circuits without having to find all the components, and without the risk of getting an electrical shock! See if you can create a circuit that will light the bulb!
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