how do electric dynamos create electricity simply from a few magnets and copper wiring?
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A magnet creates a force field, of sorts. When it’s just sitting there, the field is stable and nothing happens so far as the wire is concerned.
BUT when the magnet and wire change position relative to each other the shape and/or polarity of the field (as seen by the wire) changes, and the electrons in the wire go flying off trying to find a new stable condition, they want to be back to the part where (as far as they care) “nothing is happening”.
Electricity is produced by constantly changing the relationship between the magnet(s) and the coil of wire, in other words — forcing the electrons in the wire to constantly be chasing a steady state. If you imagine a bunch of electrons hanging out on a treadmill that’s turned off, they are just there enjoying the view. Turn the treadmill on and they all go racing off to find a treadmill that is off. They find the new treadmill, and you turn *that* treadmill on and the first one off…they switch back. They don’t want to be running, they want to chill.
You keep flip-flopping the relationship status of the wire and magnet, do it fast enough and you end up with a constant flow of electrons — also known as an electric current.
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