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About This Quiz
If you're considering a new line of work -- or a first line of work -- you could do worse than to become an electrician. It's a highly skilled trade, requiring several hundred hours of classroom instruction before you enter the field. Once there, you'll work as an Apprentice, under the direct supervision of a Journeyman, the next level up. If you enjoy the work and do well at it, you could work your way up to Master. That's the highest and best-paid tier.Â
Certainly, the job has hazards. Electric shock is the obvious one, but electricians can also be injured in fires started by the electricity they control (or usually do). Falls are also a risk, as some electricians work at heights -- for example, on power poles for public utilities, or in the rafters of theaters and large auditoriums. The upside, of course, is good pay, a job that's always in demand, and the opportunity to work with and master something that's fascinated humans for millennia - electricity.Â
Do you have what it takes to be a master electrician? We've crafted a quiz to help you find out. Some of the questions are on electricity in general; others are about the specific tools and practices of the job. It might start fairly easy, but don't worry, the questions will get more difficult as you go!
What is the common term for the flow of electricity?
Course
Current
A current is a flow of electricity. Electricians have units of measure that describe its speed, the ease with which it flows or the resistance.
Channeling
Race
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Which of these is NOT a unit used in reference to electricity?
Ampere
Kilocalorie
Of course, it's kilocalorie. Technically, what we think of as a "calorie" is actually a thousand calories, a literal calorie being a very small measure of the energy potential of food.
Ohm
Volt
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At its most basic, a circuit is what kind of loop?
Closed
Circuits must be closed to function properly. "Infinite loop" is a term from computer science, not electrician work.
Infinite
Open
Defined
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What is the term for a material that allows electric current to flow through it easily?
Anode
Conductor
Something that allows current to flow through it easily is called a conductor. "Conductive" is the adjective term. Many metals are great conductors.
Inductor
Transponder
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Which of these metals has the highest conductivity?
Copper
Gold
Silver
Surprised? Silver is actually a better conductor than copper, but copper is much less expensive. Gold ranks third.
Brass
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What is the main property that good conductors have?
Low atomic weight
High water content
Free electrons
Electric current is the movement of charged particles -- almost always negatively charged electrons. Substances with free electrons are "ready to move," in this sense.
An extra proton
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Which of these non-metal substances is a very good conductor?
Cotton
Diamond
Water
Most people, regardless of their line of work, know this. It's important to an electrician's work because water on a job site can be dangerous.
Wood
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What is the opposite of "conductive"?
Deductive
Inductive
Insulating
The opposite of a conductive material is an insulating one. "Insulation" takes its name from "insula," the Latin word for "island," and refers to a substance's ability to shield you from electricity.
Substrating
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Which of these do electricians NOT work on?
Airplanes
Cars
Utility poles
Electricians work on all of these.
An electrician might specialize in the field of aviation, shipbuilding, public utility lines, high-speed data cabling and more. But in the theater, an "electrician" is a lighting technician. He or she isn't usually a union electrician who is part of the Apprentice/Journeyman/Master system.
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An electrician who works on high-voltage wires for a public utility is called which of these?
Poleman
Lineman
Don't yell at us about the sexism of the term, please, we didn't invent it! Fewer than 3 percent of electricians are female -- which is a shame, because a veteran electrician can make serious bank.
Telecom worker
Utilitarian
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Which of these is a unit measuring difference in electrical potential ?
Ampere
Coloumb
Volt
The "volt" is named for physicist Alessandro Volta. "Difference in electrical potential" is a relatively complicated concept, also known as "electrical tension." (Which doesn't clarify much).
Watt
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Can electricity be stored?
Yes, it can.
Of course electricity can be stored! That's the basic function of a battery, after all.
No, it has to be used as it's generated.
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Which of these tools is an electrician least likely to need?
A drum auger
A drum auger is a plumber's tool. Augers in general are called "drain snakes," and are are used to clear clogs. We probably should have said that an electrician would be VERY unlikely to need this.
A multimeter
Needle-nosed pliers
A wire stripper
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If electrical work does not meet government safety standards, it is "not up to" what?
Amps
Code
"Code" is the term for the set of safety rules that a jurisdiction sets. If you chose "Hoyle," you were probably thinking of the expression "according to Hoyle," which is a figure of speech, and not actually official!
Hoyle
Tome
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Which of these is the unit of electrical charge?
Coulomb
The coulomb is the charge carried by a current of one ampere over one second. It, like most terms in electricity, is named for a scientist, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb.
Joule
Watt
Farad
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The ability to hold an electrical charge is called what?
Capacitance
This is the root of the word "capacitator," a device used in electrical engineering. Capacitance is measured in "farads," named for physicist Michael Faraday.
Permitivity
Resistance
Volume
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What is the name for electric current that regularly changes direction?
Alternating current
The term for this is alternating current, or "AC." Most homes are wired in AC.
Moderated current
Variable current
There is no name for this.
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What is the opposite of alternating current?
Exact current
Direct current
This might be familiar to you from the band name AC/DC. Who knew metal could be useful in a trivia quiz completely unrelated to music?
Dilated current
Variable current
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What does an ohm measure?
Direction of current
Volume of current
Potential for work
Resistance
Resistance is the difficulty with which electric current flows. So what's the difference between that and insulation? Insulation is inherent to the material; for example, rubber is highly insulative by nature. Resistance changes when the shape of the conducting material is changed -- for example, a thick versus a thin wire.
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What quality does gold have that makes it valuable as a conductor?
It looks nice.
It performs well in extreme cold.
It resists arcing.
It resists tarnishing.
Fun fact: Neither gold nor diamond are particularly rare. They were first valued for their durability, and eventually became status symbols. Therefore gold, despite its use in jewelry and value as an investment, is still used as a conductor in electronics when tarnishing is a concern.
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What does an ampere measure?
Charge built up in a battery
Insulativity
Rate of current flow
The word "amperes" is often shortened to "amps." We're not sure how "amped" became a slang term meaning "excited," except that hey, it's got to do with electricity, and that was probably enough.
Direction of current flow
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Which of these has a resistance of virtually zero?
An anode
A cathode
A semiconductor
A superconductor
Superconductivity isn't a phenomenon often found in nature, or everyday engineering. A superconductor requires very cold temperatures, for one thing. Most electricians will never have to deal with one.
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What would you find in a house's "service panel"?
Circuit breakers
The service panel, or "breaker box," is where you go after part of your home loses electricity, to see which circuit was tripped. Then you curse yourself for never adequately labeling the circuits.
A cooling fan
A master diagram of the house's wiring
All of these
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Should a non-electrician ever trip a circuit in a breaker box?
No, it's too dangerous.
Yes, and sometimes it's a good idea.
It's easy to trip a circuit and then restore it. In fact, if you're going to do repairs on an appliance or replace a lighting fixture, this is a good safety precaution.
No. It's safe, but they'll have to pay an electrician to turn it back on.
It's impossible to do so.
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True or false: Are "circuit breaker" and "fuse" the same thing?
Yes
No, but they're close.
A circuit breaker and a fuse serve the same purpose -- they keep current from exceeding a maximum amperage. But fuses melt, whereas circuit breakers "trip" or break the circuit, shutting off the current. They can then can be reset.
No, they're hugely different things.
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A return path in a circuit, or a connection directly to the earth, is called what?
Recall
Ground
This is called an "earth" in other parts of the world. It's an important safety precaution. You don't want to stand in for the ground in an electrical system!
Safety
There is no name for this
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What is an "entrance box"?
A receptacle box with proper grounding
A basic toolkit for electricians
The female part of a receptacle box
The main electricity panel outside the house
You'll hear this called the "main box" sometimes. The exterior is waterproof, so it won't be harmed by rains.
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Is there such a thing as a "voltmeter"?
Yes, there is.
A voltmeter tests the difference in electrical potential between two points in a circuit. A multimeter has this function, but also might measure resistance or amperage.
No, just a "multimeter"
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True or false: Lightning is a large-scale example of arcing electricity.
True
False
Lightning is a grand, highly visible example of static electricity, not electric arc. Arcing is a rarer phenomenon, and a little more complicated to explain.
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OK, then, what *is* electric arc?
A current running backward between two poles
A gas breaking down to create electricity between two poles
Electric arc is one of the more complicated concepts in electrical engineering. However, it has its uses -- public streetlamps used to make common use of electric arcing, and movie projectors still do.
Electric current created by an organism, e.g. an electric eel
Electric current in water
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"GFCI" stands for which of these?
Ground Fault Circuit Intensifier
Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor
A GFCI is a protective device that shuts off current to prevent injury. Receptacle boxes in walls have them, and they should be tested regularly to ensure they're still working properly.
Ground Fault Circuit Interior
Ground Fault Circuit Internment
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Which of these natural phenomena is innately linked to electricity?
Oxidation
Photosynthesis
Magnetism
In physics, the terms are sometimes combined as "electromagnetism." At the center of both are the workings of positive and negative poles or charges.
Wind
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What is the name for the outermost part of a cord's insulation?
Base
Jacket
This might be the only area where fashion and electricianship overlap!
Ribbing
Strip
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Why do newer electrical plugs have different sizes?
Because one connects to the "hot" wires and one to the neutral wire
This is so you can only insert the plug one way. This way, the prong for the hot and neutral wires are always in the correct place.
Because one conducts protons and one conducts electrons
Because one is for 15-ampere current and the other for 25 amps
No one knows.
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Which of these groups suffer the highest rate of electrocution deaths on the job?
Electricians
This shouldn't surprise anyone, though you might have thought that electricians are safer on the job because of their specialized training. Sadly, this isn't so, according to occupational-safety stats. It underscores the need for good training and refresher courses.
Carpenters
Auto mechanics
Stadium and theater lighting technicians
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You Got:
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