Please explain the difference between single phase and three phase. I’ve tried to figure it out but I can’t get a grasp of it.
In: Physics
Lets say you have a spinning magnet, and put a coil next to it, this generates 1 phase power, and uses 2 wires. Now lets add 2 more coils, evenly spaced around the spinning magnet, and wire them up so that the current going out on one wire comes back on the other 2. You get 3x the power with 1.5x the wires, making it more efficient. It’s also convenient having 3 phases for motors, as you can control which direction the motor rotates very easily, just swap two of the wires if you want to reverse the direction. With single phase, if it’s just a coil and a magnet, it’s essentially random which direction the motor will spin when you turn it on, so you have to do more complicated stuff like using a capacitor or shaded pole to make it start spinning a specific direction.
Latest Answers