I work with equipment that operates on three phase electrical circuits. I can’t get my head around the concept of “phases.”
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Let me take a whack at it. This is also not precise but I think none of the answers are actually ELI5.
Let’s say I make a one way toll route to a super cool place that electrons want to go. Like the Disneyland of electrons. Each one drives by and pays me a little bit of energy tokens that I can use. This is kind of what happens in DC circuits, right?
Well, what if I make a two way toll route and advertise my super cool electron attraction so all of them go this way, and then advertise another attraction on the side they were! After that I keep alternating so they’re motivated to keep crossing. Then they would pass the toll, then turn around and go the other way, then turn around and do it again. So I’d still be making energy tokens even if they don’t get anywhere. Now let’s say my toll employees need a steady income and the problem with this system is that everyone is full force going one way and we make a lot, then news gets out and everyone turns around and in between there’s a period of a low season, where they’re just turning around.
To solve this problem, i divide them into two groups, and tell them where the coolest attraction is at different times so when the first group is turning around, the second group is going full force in one direction. This way I have less peaks of busy times and nadirs of low seasons. This is two phase electricity.
But it’s still a little uneven. I can smooth the whole thing out by adding more complexity but apparently for what I want to do three groups of electrons being motivated to move at different times is enough to keep my steady flow. That’s three phrase electricity.
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