Why do human electricity generation so focused on efficently boiling water and turning a turbine with it. do we have other ways of generating electricity every power plant i know (coal gas nuclear) does the turbine method ? And why is boiling water and turning a turbine with it so great ?
In: Physics
So, if you force electrons to move through metal (i.e., electricity), it produces a magnetic field. This is just how physics works. This is how, for example, electromagnets work to pick up large piecrs of metal.
Turns out the reverse is also true – if you induce a magnetic field near a piece of metal it will cause electrons to move in that metal. This is called magnetic induction and is how induction stoves and wireless phone chargers work.
In general (except for solar panels) we generate electricity using magnetic induction basically by taking a magnet and spinning it around a piece of wire. This causes the electrons in the wire to go back and forth, producing AC current. Sometimes we can do this directly with wind or water (hydroelectric), but for generating with gas/coal/nuclear the question is “what is the best way to continually spin a large magnet around something using the heat generated from burning coal/gas or from nuclear fission”?
Small gasoline-powered generators do this with a small internal combustion engine, but power plants dont use gasoline. Using the heat generated to boil water and then use that steam to turn a turbine is the best way that weve figured out how to do this that uses a plentiful resource and that is fairly efficient. The same basic design also works for all fuel sources.
You have a better idea of how to do this?
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