Piezoelectricity

Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that builds up in certain solid materials, including some crystals, ceramics and biological matter such as bone, when they are placed under mechanical stress, and the effect also runs in reverse, so that an applied electric field makes the material deform slightly. French physicists Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered the effect in 1880 using tourmaline, quartz, topaz and Rochelle salt, and the mathematician Gabriel Lippmann predicted the reverse effect in 1881, which the Curies then confirmed. The effect converts mechanical stress directly into electrical energy, most familiarly in the spark of a piezoelectric lighter, and researchers have explored harvesting it from sources such as footsteps and dance floors and from industrial machinery vibrations, though practical power output has so far limited wider adoption. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/