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AC stands for Alternating Current, and DC stands for Direct Current.Direct current means electrons constantly flow in one direction, but alternating current means they switch constantly,so electrons kind of shake back and forth.

For instance, all batteries are DC, but any time you have a wall outlet, it is an AC power source, meaning it isn't a direct current.But anything that uses a battery or that is a more advanced electronic device (less advanced would be light bulb, toaster, ect.) needs an AC to DC converter because it can't use AC current.This is why laptops have that box thing that is on their charging cable.It converts the shaking electrons to a direct flow of electrons which it can then use to charge its battery.