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 »
The relay makes a lot more sense to me now!
My dad uses WD40 for everything!
i liked dr billings presentation
Thank You Mr. Billimgs
This new Acellus center sounds like a great idea
This was inspired
This is so good I had to watch it twice. Thank you Dr Billings, great explanation.
I enjoyed learning about WD40!!
R51 is funny!
I like wd40 and the NASA. Thank you Mr. Billings!
I love Science Live and hearing about data and DNA. Thank you Dr. Billings!
What are transistors made from?
R 51 is so funny
This invention is so cool!
I love science live!!!
My dad loves wd40!
Thanks Dr. Billing for this new lesson
The story about WD 40 was awesome.I love watching science live
very interesting about WD40!
Awesome video 🥰❤️
This was wonderful I did not know that it took 40 trys to make WD 40
Wow!
WD-40 is insane!
Dr Billings is really smart.
This live was awesome to learn about where WD-40 came from. Rocket Chemical CO Inc. were asked by NASA to make a formula for the rockets to keep the water off them so the steel would not rust. They worked very hard and mixed many formulas up and were ready to quit after the 39 attempt but they tried one more time and it work. The name came from the 40 formula that was successful and in 1958 the WD40 was on the shelves for customers to try. In the year 1993 one million cases sold and today there are 2,000 household uses for this product.
Thank you for teaching me
what is that place where all the kids were playing in the begining i want to go there!!
I’m watching from Westmoreland,Virginia. I enjoyed watching Science live and can’t wait to watch it again next week.
The relay coil creates an electromagnetic field when it’s energized by an electric current. And I loved the info about WD-40!
I love making wd-40 jokes now I know the origin
Thank you for Acellus and we appreciate you and all the teachers so thank you for giving us this opportunity to homeschool
Great as always!
DNA, data, & WD-40? What a great episode.
That is cool! WD-40, My Dad used it for his Clocks as one of the solution to repair Vintages Grand father clocks. R-51, next time ,don’t touch anything that you do not know what will happen>>>>you ruin Dr. Billing’s work.
40 try’s is insane, never knew WD40 was so complex!
My dad uses wd40 on everything.
I had no idea the backstory on WD-40! So interesting!
3.2GB in one cell’s DNA is crazy. It’s amazing our everything in our body just works together perfectly.
Hello from Illinois! Wd40 is such an interesting thing to learn about thank you! <3
I love Acellus. My fav teacher is Mr. Edmond.
R51 is the conductor now!
Dr. Billings is the best!
Science Live is so useful!!!!!!
I can’t wait to take some of Dr. Johns stem classes!
science rocks Thank you Dr. Billings
So many interesting things on Science Live tonight, thank you Dr B!
I find the DNA and Data very interesting.
Hi from Michigan!
So many interesting things on science live tonight, thanks Dr B!
Happy Thursday guys! What’s the name of the phenomenon where light changes direction when it passes from one medium to another?
Man the relay was so cool
My dad uses WD-40 on everything.
It is interesting how they put WD-40 on a rocket to keep the metal from rusting .
I am in shock that it took 40 tries to make WD-40.
Season’s Greetings from California! ❄️
I would live forever if I laughed at all my mistakes!
Never knew that about WD40 thanks for the information.
40 TRIES IS CRAZY
Thank you Mr. Billing’s!
Thank you for the Live! I cant wait until next week.
Love what you guys do!
I can’t believe that’s how wd-40 is made! You really do learn something new everyday.
I love R51
My dad uses wd 40 all the time and now I know how it works!!
Who knew WD40 would become such a dependable product! Interesting video!
1000 years seemed already very long for storing DNA. That’s awesome they we’re able to collect DNA from woolly mammoths from over 1 million years ago.
Dr Billings is the goat, he knows so much and is so much funny! Its also great to hear what you have to say.
Science live is the best.
Science live is the best
It’s incredibly fascinating how Thomas Edison motivated himself and may others. From what Dr.Tobias spoke about, I learned that Thomas Edison once said “The most certain way to succeed, is to try one more time.”
We love this! thank you
I learned how they store DNA data in a cassette tape. Super fastenating!
t’s so amazing that we can now store data in DNA!!! Technology is getting crazy
I didn’t know it took 40 trys to make WD40!
wow WD-40!!!! that’s so insane
Dr.Billings is smart
Man, Dr.Billings is one of the funniest guys ever!!! I also love listening to the History, it one of my favorite subjects. Only 40 tries to make wd40 is crazy!
Definitely using wd 40 for the snow shovel!
Another inspiring live! Thank you Acellus and Dr. Billings. It was so cool to learn about WD40 and the R-51 🤣 Loved it so much!
r-51 got shocked
Incredibly interesting learning about both WD-40 and human cells!
Cannot believe R-51 got shocked. I am so gonna use WD40 on everything. I really enjoyed this video. Time to come up with an invention for the fair in 2027. Watching from Georgia.
It’s amazing to see how many uses WD-40 has.
Hearing about WD40 and DNA was amazing! I love science!!
acellus is the best!
Thanks Dr. Billings!!! I love learning about these interesting facts!!
Mr Roger Billings shares the most amazing, mindblowing facts. Extremely interesting
Is R-51 ok after getting shocked?
I LOVE SCIENCE!!!!!!!!
R-51 is so funny!🤣
I LOVE SCIENCE LIVE!❤️
Dr. billings is so cool!😎
WD-40’s pretty wild!
Great science live.
Watching from Texas!
It’s crazy to think that WD-40 came from a failed NASA project, then became incredibly useful.
WD-40 has a reallly strong smell but it works amazing!
Hello from Ohio!
I can not even believe how many things WD40 can fix! Merry Christmas to all!
I found it quite interesting on how WD-40 was invented!
Watching from East Tennessee!
Thank you Mr billings! I really enjoyed watching this today, and my brother did too, I’m sure. I really liked hearing about nasa, and WD40
R-51 is so funny! I love science live
I really enjoy the science experiments!
Thanks Dr Billings.
I enjoyed learning the story about WD-40.
science live is so cool its always teaching me new things
Science lives are awesome!
I love Acellus Live! It is fun to watch each week.
My dad uses WD40 all the time!! No wonder its named WD”40″ though.. LOL
I am really excited about the science fair. The exhibits look really cool.
Greetings from Ohio!
Thank you Dr. Billings!
WD40 story is cool
WD-40 is an amazing product and has many cool uses. We use it around the house a lot.
This was so interesting!!!
watching from Florida!! WD40 is so cool!
I think circuits and rockets are interesting.
Love science live!
its really fun watching science live! I liked hearing about wd40!
I found it interesting that WD-40 was originally made for NASA for early space missions.
I didn’t know how many uses WD-40 has.
Thank you for the Live. You’re knowledge is incredible!
I love learning about radio waves! These lives have opened my eyes to the wonderful world of radio waves and morse code. Keep the amazing work up!
the bell circuit was sooo cool
Thank you for today’s science live. I found it impressive on how Dr. Billings showing on how inventors improved the radio wave invention with a relay.
I LOVVVVEEEEEE SCIENCE LIVE!!!!! #NEVERSTOP! #ROGERBILLINGS!!! #SCIENCERULES!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I thought that the history behind WD40 was fascinating and interesting.
We have WD-40 at our house. That’s so cool that it was used on rockets!
The Acellus gradutation sounds interesting, will you do one every year?
Electricity is so interesting! thank you for helping me learn this! youre amazing
This is awesome Dr. Billings, I learn something new everyday! 🙂
i love science live
Electricity is so interesting! thank you for helping me learn
Cool facts about radio waves! Thank you Dr. B.🤩🤩🤩
That is INSANE how they’re using DNA like that! Sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi story LOL.
Been looking forward to science live all week!
I liked when the spoons clicked together and the pyramid lit up.
wow 40 trys that is crazy dr.billings you are so smart.
Acellus world and the graduation ceremonies look like a blast!
I really like that quote from Edison about the way to success is to try just one more time. Very motivating!
Good episode. also R 51’s section at the end was hilarious!
Wow! I always learn new things here!
Thanks for the new information Dr. B! 🙂
Creating a relay is so interesting!
Science live is amazing! Crazy it took that much to make WD-40. The DNA Stuff was cool too
Can’t wait for the next Science Live!
I think the WD-40 section was cool
The DNA facts were great!
Acellus live is so interesting!!!
Who is the only person to know the ingredients of wd-40?
I liked Dr. Billings teaching us!
The spoon relay is so cool! also, I love the part when Dr. billings shows us how he makes radio waves.🤩
WD40 is very versatile!!
What time of 2026 is Acellus World?
You guys are awsome!!!!!!!!!
That’s crazy about WD-40 about how many tries it took and it’s funny because my family uses it a lot for bikes and even other things too
i love Acellus!
Thanks Mr. billing for teaching me something Today.
The story of WD-40 is fascinating! I will have to tell my parents!
what state or country are all you guys from? I’m from the Big Island of Hawaii.
I love all the things I learn in these videos. thanks for all the time you guys put into them!
This is definitely one of my favorite episodes so far. I am definitely going to re watch certain parts.
I love science life so much!!!!!!!🤗
Hello from Illinois! Watching Science live makes me love learning!
I never knew that WD40 was made that far back
The Lego and WD40 was funny and I am wandering other cool things you can do with WD40.
That’s cool how they came up with WD40.
Wow! WD 40 has so many uses!
Very cool! Thank you.
Will Acellus ever have a music class???
NASA is my favorite thing to learn about. Thank you for teaching me!
Thank you Dr Roger Billings!!!
The bell experiment was amazing!
First, I can’t wait to go to Acellus world when I graduate. And second, I had no idea that people were making data out of DNA! Thanks Dr. John!
I love you guys
Love science live teaches me so much!
the science expirement was super crazy.