So I was on a train and got curious how waterwheels and wind turbines and everything of the sort make electricity so like any normal person would I searched it up. And on google I kid you not all the responses were “it spins the generator making electricity” like what am I dumb or does to at make no sence and explains nothing please help.
In: Planetary Science
The generator has a coppercoil or a permanent magnet spinning. Another coppercoil around it then experiences a rotating magnetic field.
Due to the law of induction a changing magnetic field causes a “whirl” of electrical field around it. This is then basically captured as a voltage in the second coil.
In laymen term you basically make a magnetic swirl/eddy and electrons want to follow it so they start going in circles.
By coils of wire moving in magnetic fields, or magnetic fields moving past coils of wire.
It’s the same physics that makes electric motors work, except you’re putting power in by mechanically spinning it, and getting power out by electricity.
With some types of motors, you can connect two identical motors to each other with wires, and spinning one motor will make the other motor spin too.
To make it super super simple:
When you move a magnet along a conducting object (like a metal wire) the magnetism forcefully moves electrons inside the metal. This movement of electrons is what we call “electricity”
A generator works by spinning either the magnets or the metal wires. Doing this with ALOT of wires and some STRONG magnets makes it so you can generate alot of electricity, because the magnets force alot of electrons to move
If the thing moves because you are putting electricity into it, it is a Motor, being “driven” by electricity.
If the thing moves and electricity comes out, it is a generator.
A motor can be a generator, it literally just depends on whether electricity goes in or out.
You can’t understand generators without first understanding (or at least accepting) Faraday’s law. If you move a magnet near a conductor, you induce a current in that conductor. You might ask “how?” and “why?”, but just go with it. Magnets and electricity are related, and one can create the other.
Take a long piece of wire, and wrap it into a coil with a hole in the center. Now take a magnet and move it through the coil. You will see a current forming in the wire, transporting electrons from one end to the other. Move the magnet back and forth, and you’ve created an alternating current source. Attach the magnet to something that moves back and forth, and you’ve just made an electric generator.
Spinning is similar, just instead of moving the magnet back and forth in the coil, you spin the magnet inside the coil.
Generators are basically just electron pumps. It doesn’t create anything. Free electrons are present in copper wire, and electrons are pushed/pulled by magnets. By spinning a magnet around a loop of wire you push the electrons through the wire to wherever they need to go.
When you stir a spoon of nesquick into milk, you will see the swirling of the chocolate into the milk. Turn the spoon sideways and you’ll feel and see the milk hitting the spoon, imparting a force to it.
The same thing is happening with electromagnetic fields in a generator. You turn a generator shaft and the shaft (stator) magnetic coils create a swirl of electromagnetic fields, which are captured by the stationary coils on the outside of the motor (stator) and turned into electricity.
Lots of different ways to do it in varying geometric forms to maximise efficiency of energy transfer but a generator is a mechanical to electrical energy conversion machine that uses magnets and copper coils to achieve that conversion.
Magnets. You move magnets real fast past some metal and it the magnetic field goes “bzzzzzzzz” by sucking out some electrons
A motor converts an electrical current and a magnetic field into a force that turns the motor
A generator is the exact same effect but in reverse. Where we force a coil of wire to spin inside a magnetic field (or vice versa) and it makes a current flow in the coil of wire.
Look up flemmings left hand rule for more details.
An electric generator is essentially the same thing as an electric motor.
If you add electricity it makes the motor move. If you manually move the motor, it generates electricity. The motor/generator is a converter of energy, from kinetic movement to electricity, and vice versa.
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