Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes ProCon History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture Money Videos
piezoelectricity
Table of Contents
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Images
Piezoelectricity
Quizzes
battery. Illustration of battery connected to lightbulb. Power a light bulb with a battery. Battery, Power Supply, Science, Circuit, Currents
Electricity: Short Circuits & Direct Currents
Related Questions
Read Next
Highway Night Traffic Portland, drive, driving, car, automobile.
What's the Difference Between Speed and Velocity?
Above the clouds 130 nautical miles below, astronaut Mark C. Lee floats freely without tethers as he tests the new Simplified Aid for Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Spacewalk Rescue (SAFER) system, Sept. 16, 1994. Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-64
Gravity: From Apples to the Universe
Discover
Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 9th Mechanized Division learning to operate and maintain M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks at Besmaya Combat Training Center, Baghdad, Iraq, 2011. Military training. Iraq war. U.S. Army
8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century
A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England
Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution
Super Typhoon Noru over the western tropical Pacific Ocean as observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA Aqua satellite July 31 2017
What Is the Difference Between a Typhoon and a Super Typhoon?
Santa Claus flying in his sleigh, christmas, reindeer
Was Santa Claus a Real Person?
Thanksgiving Celebration Traditional Dinner Setting Food Concept
Why Is Thanksgiving in the U.S. Celebrated on a Thursday?
Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society
12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”
Diverse elementary school children wearing school uniforms running outside of school. Boys girls
Pro and Con: School Uniforms
Piezoelectricity
Piezoelectricity A piezoelectric disc used as a pickup on a classical guitar.

piezoelectricity

physics
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Share
Share to social media
URL
https://www.britannica.com/science/piezoelectricity
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Written and fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: • Article History
Key People:
Pierre Curie

piezoelectricity, appearance of positive electric charge on one side of certain nonconducting crystals and negative charge on the opposite side when the crystals are subjected to mechanical pressure. This effect is exploited in a variety of practical devices such as microphones, phonograph pickups, and wave filters in telephone-communications systems.

Piezoelectricity was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Paul-Jacques Curie, who found that when they compressed certain types of crystals including quartz, tourmaline, and Rochelle salt, along certain axes, a voltage was produced on the surface of the crystal. The next year, they observed the converse effect, the elongation of such crystals upon the application of an electric current.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.