The Relay
December 10, 2025 • EPISODE 290
How does a simple relay help us understand electricity and circuits? In this episode of Science LIVE, Roger Billings breaks down the science behind the relay—the clever electromagnetic switch that makes it possible to control circuits with precision. Learn how relays work, why they’re essential in everyday electronics, and how this simple idea became a building block for modern technology. A clear, hands-on look at one of engineering’s most important tools.
About DrB
Dr. Roger Billings is a visionary innovator whose work has touched the lives of millions of students and transformed the landscape of education. Widely known as “DrB” to the countless kids who benefit from his groundbreaking Acellus learning system, Dr. Billings has dedicated his life to advancing education through technology.
As part of DrB’s lifelong commitment to supporting education, Science LIVE was launched as a way to “give back” by mentoring students in conjunction with the Roger Billings Scholarship Program.
Read more about DrB »
About the Roger Billings Scholarship Program »
Watching from New Jersey!
Thanks for the videos Mr. Billings
Yeah! Dr. John with all of his DNA facts.
That’s cool that, that’s why they called it WD40. Because it took 40 tries.
Right when Tobias was saying all the ways you can use WD40, my mom said that she needed to use some on our doors to stop them from squeaking.
Thursdays are my favorite day because I get to watch science live!
Great video! Now I know how WD 40 got its name.
Hello from North Carolina
Science Live always has the best facts!
Poor R-51! Learning about WD 40 was cool!
Are there other ways to control circuits without electromagnetic means?
Dr. Billings’s smart
R-51 is so funny!
Thank you Mr. Billings!
wow great stuff science is so inspiring!
thank you Mr. Billings that so cool
Wow that’s amazing how WD-40 started.
Love Science live🩷could you Possibly do Some science on birds .🦆🦚🐓🦢🕊️🪿🦜🦩🪺🐤🐓🐦🦃
bird
Interesting story about the WD-40 formula. Great to hear about the brand new Acellus Conference Center where future graduation ceremonies will take place.
My dad uses WD40 all the time! That’s cool!
Loved this video soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much! R51 is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo FUNNY! And I learn new things every time! Thank you for that r51!!!!!!!!!!!! Must have been painful, but it was funny too!
Greetings from Dallas Texas great video! remember when working with electric tech, always use the right equipment, stay safe out there guys!
Greetings from KY!
R51 is hilarious!
Happy holidays to everyone
It’s crazy that they had to recreate WD-40 forty times!!! Thanks Dr. Billings! Enjoyed the science live so much today! 🙂
Wow! Science is now my favorite subject.
I feel so inspired when I watch science live
Hello my daughter is enjoying science live! Thank you
The spoon relay demonstration was awesome! I’m loving these lives, keep ’em coming!
I didn’t know you could use WD-40 for so many things.
It’s amazing to learn how WD-40 came about. I would run out of numbers before I could tell you how many things my family uses WD-40 on.
Science live is SO FUN!!!!!!!
I liked learning about DNA and how it stores data.
i love science live! This was a great one! <3
I love scince live
This was a very cool episode!
had fun watching today ! Love Acellus
It’s so cool how that bell rings in a relay circuit in this Science live educational video.
that’s a lot of try’s to make wd40!
Thank you Dr. Billings!
I always love watching the science live thank you so much!!
That was awesome! I didn’t know that information. I love how smart Mr. Billings is!
I love ACELLUS so much!!
Poor R-51 got shocked!
I love R51 and you .
That’s crazy it took 40 years to make WD40!
Science Live is always a nice break from doing lessons to just absorbing some interesting facts and knowledge.
Super interesting! Science is the best!
DNA is so cool! I like learning about it.
I love Science Live!
Watching from Belize💪
WD-40 has got to be one of the best inventions ever.
Hello from Tennessee, I look forward to the science live every week! I love to learn more about science and Acellus at the same time!
I never knew WD-40 was so secretive about their formula. i figured it would be common knowledge for their employees.
I wonder how many things we wouldn’t have if we only tried once?
Marconi was a smart person, I liked the bell.
WD 40 has endless uses and I had no clue this whole time! I always learn something new watching science live/
The conductor joke was on another level love that ya’ll keep it funny!!
Science time!
I learned that NASA needed to come up with a solution on what to coat a rocket with in order to keep water off.
Do phone calls use radio waves?
DNA to store data for thousands of years is a fascinating concept.
I still can’t believe that the electronic bell had used a switch that activates when the hammer hits the bell, turning off the electromagnet and returning the hammer to it’s place, which then activates the magnet. It’s amazing.
Hi from Michigan!! I love tuning in to science live<3
R 51 was so funny
I can’t believe that many kids graduated from Acellus!!!
It was really interesting, the part about how DNA can store bata almost immediately cautious my attention, but the main spotlight of the episode was about the relay and how the first version of the radio was created.
R-51 didn’t derserve that shock! haha
So be like WD-40 and don’t give up!
Awesome new facts I’ve learned!
My favorite part was when R51 got zapped at the end.
I enjoyed hearing about how long it took them to make the special formula.
Thank you! I love science live!
40 tries to make WD-40 is ironic lol
I like Science Live And Learning About The Relay
What can you use WD40 for besides to make doors stop squeaking?
WD40 was amazing. I wish they had more time for science live.
Thank you Mr. Billings!
I love how Dr. Joshua talked about the aselles app
WD40 is so cool!!!!!
r 51 is so funny
R51 was sooo funny
I am super excited for Aceluss World 2026!
I love WD-40!
i like watching these lessons with my mom every week
The jingle bells playing and the dna stuff is Amazing!
I love Tobias I use wd40 a lot awesome episode.
wow talk about resilience. 40 tries is crazy
WOW! I didn’t think that R-51 was going to get shocked after there has been almost 289 episodes since R-51 came to life! Hope he is feeling better from the shock! Keep going Dr. Billings!
Love from Texas. This episode was amazing guys!
great show love dr tobias!
Not patenting wd40 was really smart!
WD-40 is so cool. crazy it took 40 tries
One thing I enjoyed about the video was the part about Joseph Henry inventing the first electric bell in 1831.
I also liked the part about making electro magnetism, first you have to wrap a wire around a piece of metal, then you have to run electricity through it, and then it turns into a magnet.
Wow I didn’t know that about WD40! It’s cool to be able to know more about what we work with daily.
Relays are interesting¡
Thousands of years of data storage that is a lot of storage.
Wow, I never thought WD-40 would have such a history! I love Science Live!
Thank you, Mr. Billings!
HI! I’m from Texas and I love learning on Acellus!
Relays are incredibly important pieces of technology and nobody really brings them up to much so thanks for that.
I love science live this one was great
That’s a really smart idea to save storge by using something like DAN to make and save more Data.
Watching from South Dakota!!!
I LOVE SCIENCE LIVE😍🧬🧫💡⚡️
Science live is so helpful and intresting.
My dad actually just used WD40
I love this Science live classes!
I really enjoyed the demonstration about the bell and the relay.
I loved this episode of Science LIVE! I especially enjoyed the part about DNA, it was really interesting!
Its such a blessing to learn so much in only an hour time period! I love science live and this has to be one of my favorite lessons
I absolutely loved this science live!
I love learning about WD 40😁😆
I like the way how DrB was in R51s area I can’t wait for the next one!
This is so interesting I love it so much and I can’t wait to see and learn more about these lives.
I enjoyed the Optimism Curve
The loading edit that r-51 had was hilarious!
Watching and cutting snowflakes. Merry Christmas everyone!
I LOVE SCIENCE LIVE
The relay is a very fascinating invention. Awesome Science Live this week!
Fascinating back story behind the name WD-40. Really cool that they never gave up and kept trying for the formula.
These science lives are always spectacular!
does Acellus have the Acellus party every year
Science LIVE!!!
I loved Science Live this week.
So cool learning about this new storage idea using DNA!
Amazing episode excited for next week!!!
What a great Science Live. The DNA was so interesting. Learning about WD-40 was so good. And I am loving Dr. Billings showing us hands on how things work. Great Science Live!
I liked it because science is very interesting and I can learn new things every week. Thanks Acellus.
Thank you , Dr. Billings for the SCience lesson!
My Aunt uses WD-40 on everything
serves you right R 51, You should not be snooping.
Hi, from Brasil
Watching from Minnesota
I always learn so much i love science live!
I thought it was crazy that it took 40 times to figure out what to mix to make WD-40 . It was also cool how so many people bought it in a week.
I love these vids 😂
Thank you for the Science LIVE video Dr. Billings!
So when is the next episode or this show is coming out on dvd i love this show.
Learned a lot thanks Dr.B!
fascinating!!
I always learn so much from science live!
I’m learning so much cool stuff about electricity.
I wonder if me and my siblings are going with our mom to Acellus world🤔? We have never gone to Acellus world before. I really want to meet Ms. Donnie, her ASL course was so cool!!! Me and my sister both took the ASL course. I am now Bilingual 😄😄
This is what keeps me interested in school!
r51 is the goat
I can’t wait for the next one to COME!
It’s nice to see you in the white coat in this live Dr. Roger’s!
I think people get hung up on failing. All of those failures don’t matter if you get one success out of 20 tries!
Why did the bell have to ding with electricity?
My parents aren’t sure about the Acellus store. They don’t want me using it because they don’t know if it needs more money for the travels.
Learning about WD40 was interesting!
Howdy from Texas!
Science live is always the best part!
Science live makes my day! So entertaining and it makes me enjoy learning.
This was great I did not know that it took 40 try’s to make WD40!
hi from Orlando Florida! so cool and fun to know
I loved this episode it was so much fun! And I loved WD40 that was awesome!!!!!
Dr. billings is a pretty smart guy
i love being able to watch science live every week with different topics everytime thank you mr billings!!!
Thank you Dr. Billings, I love science live.
You mean electric current isn’t magic?? So cool to understand!!
I use WD-40 all the time, neat to learn about it.
wow WD 40 that’s crazy .. !
Dr. Billings is the smartest 🙂
So that’s why it’s called WD40, that is pretty cool 😎
He is the smartest!!!! 😀
Amazing Information, Thank you Dr. Billings
I love science
I liked the part where Dr John was talking about the data and our DNA
I never knew that WD40 could take the gum off of your shoe. My dad used some to start a car before.
I love learning new things. Science is definitely one of my favorites.
I genuinely look forward to science live every week! Thank you Dr. Roger Billings for hosting!
I see my parents use WD 40 all the time. I had no idea that is how the name came about.
I like how they came up with wd40 and how NASA used it
I LOVE ❤️ 😍 💖 ❣️ 💕 💘 ❤️ 😍 💖 ❣️ 💕 💘 ❤️ 😍 💖 ❣️ 💕 ACELLUS
My family uses wd-40 for squeaky things!
Thank you Mr. Billings! Cool!
Thanks for showing us another cool experiment!
It’s crazy how only a few people know the precise recipe for WD-40.
Science Live is wonderful.
I will try and use wd-40 for the gum on my shoe and see if it will come off.
I love how the speakers include humor in their speaches — really keeps it engaging!
Thank you Dr. Billings !
Let me know if it works !!
I will try that out too!
The DNA facts were great!
R-51 is so funny!
I love science LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Same, It’s the best. Love learning!
SCIENCE LIVE IS THE GOAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🐐
Poor R-51 got shocked
Yeah. Poor R-51. But still that was kind of funny. What do you think?
It was cool to hear about the data and DNA!
Thank you Dr. Billings!
Learning so much!
Warning: do not touch that spoon conductor, as r 51 learned, it will shock you. Also, for the 2027 invention fair, which I think is superb, i’m going to invent a device like the coherer except, it will detect radio waves from Voyager 1, which might take a picture of some moons in order to find life. I call it “Enjoy Life”. From Lake Wylie, SC.
The story of WD 40 is cool!
Watching from florida.
I thought that it was awesome when he used the spoons to turn on the light
Thank you Dr. Billings!
I liked learning about wd40 and can’t wait to share with my dad
R-51 needs to stay on here longer, he is just so funny!
🤣🤣 🤣😂😂😂😅😅😅
He is a funny guy! 😆🥳
Watching from North East Ohio!
I did not know that in one living cell has 3.2 Gigabytes.
r-51 got shocked!!!!!!!