If i were to build a dam in a river, to focus the flow of the water and try to harness it. I guess i would create some sort of wheel that would be spun by the power of the water. How do i turn this into energy and eventually even store it?
In: Engineering
To force electrons to move through a wire, you move a magnet along a wire. Many materials will conduct electrons, but copper is the best all-around material for that, so let’s look at a copper atom
An atom has a blob in the center, like the sun, and it’s made up of protons and neutrons. All you need to know for electricity is that electrons orbit the nucleus, just like planets around the sun.
Each element has a different number of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Copper has 29 electrons per atom.
Electrons can be pulled out of an atom and shoved into the next atom by moving a strong magnet near it..
Imagine a row of copper atoms in-line along a section of copper wire. When they are at rest, each atom has 29 electrons. However, when you pass a strong magnet along the wire, just behind the magnet the copper atoms have 28 electrons, and just under the magnet, the copper atoms have 30 electrons.
Current will only flow if there is a continuous loop, called a circuit. When you turn a switch on, you are closing the switch-air-gap, and completing a circuit.
Now when you move the magnet, the copper atoms with 30 electrons are pushing electrons ahead of them to flow away from the magnet (so they can get back to 29 electrons), and the copper atoms behind the magnet with 28 electrons are pulling the electrons from the circuit to bring them back up to 29 electrons, which is where the copper atom is in balance with all its forces being stable.
Since its impractical to move magnets along a long straight wire, the copper wire is cleverly packaged into coils, and they are arranged in a circle like the numbers on an old analog clock.
Depending on how the internals are configured, this device could be called a generator, an alternator, or a dynamo.
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