As their names indicate, a step-up transformer is used to step up or increase voltage and a step-down transformer is used to step down or decrease voltage. In a step-up transformer, the secondary voltage is higher than the primary voltage and it has more turns in the secondary winding than in the primary winding.

Inductance is a property of an AC circuit (or a component in an AC circuit) that quantifies resistance to changes in current. The current in an AC circuit is continuously changing and inductive reactance (the opposition to change) depends both on the inductance of the circuit or component and the rate at which the current is changing.

Capacitors store electricity and are used in circuits as temporary batteries. Capacitors are charged by DC current (AC current passes through a capacitor) and that stored charge can later be dissipated into the circuit as needed. Capacitors are often used to maintain power within a system when it is disconnected from its primary power source or to smooth out or filter voltage within a circuit.

You can multiply the voltage or the current supplied by individual batteries by connecting them together either in series or in parallel. The characteristics of batteries connected in series are that total voltage equals the sum of the individual battery voltages, total current equals the average of the individual battery currents, the positive terminal of one battery is connected to the negative terminal of the next, and one connection is made between each adjacent battery.

Insulators have valence shells that are more than half full of electrons and, as such, are tightly bound to the nucleus and difficult to move from one atom to another.