eli5, If electricity is moving electrons, does the generator get them back?

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So a generator is magnets and copper coil yeah? They make electricity and electricity is moving electrons. Power generators and electric stations are kilometres away. Do the copper coils get their electrons back?
Won’t the copper coil run out of electrons. How the electrons come back (if they do)?

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16 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s more like clothes line pulley and the string is the electrons. The generator makes the energy source turn the pulley on one end, which pulls the strong and turns the pulley on the other end, where the energy will be used to do something useful. Like you might imagine atoms in the string vibrating, electrons in wires are moving very fast, but it’s random. When electricity is flowing the electrons are just drifting slowly in one direction around the circuit loop, something like centimeters per second. In DC electricity the pulley is spinning in the same direction. In AC electricity it’s like some dude is wiggling the pulley back and forth quickly. You can imagine this can still do work, like if you attached sand paper to the other end pulley you could sand some stuff with.this shaking motion, or make some heat.

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