What is and electric motor?
What type of everyday devices use electric motors?
Refrigerators, air conditioners, or electric trains.
Wind can be changed into electrical energy using a what?
Wind can be changed into electrical energy using a generator.
Most generators that make electrical energy produce an alternating current. What is alternating current?
Alternating current flows in one direction and then flows in the opposite direction.
motor
A device that changes electrical energy into mechanical energy.
What do simple generators and simple electric motors have in common?
The wire loop, magnets, and shaft are all essentially the same on both the generator and the motor.
Electric motors convert motion into electrical energy or electrical energy into motion?
Electric motors convert electrical energy into motion.
Flowing water can turn turbines and create what?
Flowing water can turn turbines and create electrical energy.
Electrical wall outlets, such as those in your home and school, use direct current or alternating current.
The electric wall outlets use alternating current.
direct current
Electrical current that flows through a circuit in just one direction.
What is the difference between alternating current and direct current?
Direct current always travels in one direction. Alternating current flows in one direction, stops, then reverses direction, continuously.
Electric generators change the electrical energy into the motion or motion into electrical energy?
Electric generators change motion into electrical energy.
A simple generator has many of the same parts as a motor like...
The wire loop, magnets, and shaft are basically the same.
When the flow of a current is always in one direction, is it direct current or alternating current?
It is direct current.
alternating current
Electrical current that flows through a circuit, first in one direction, then in the opposite direction.
How might an electric train use the spinning motion produced by the motor?
The train would use the spinning motion of the motor to turn it's wheels.
An electric motor makes the mechanical energy move what?
The electric motor makes the mechanical energy move the wheels.
Geothermal plants use the what inside Earth to produce what?
Geothermal plants use the heat inside Earth to produce steam.
Electric current flows continuously without stopping or reversing direction. What type of current is this, direct current or alternating current?
It is direct current.
generator
A device that creates alternating current when an electric coil spins between the poles of a magnet.
How does a simple generator work?
The shaft is turned by a turbine. The shaft turns the wire loop between the poles of a magnet. As the loop moves, an electric current is made in the wire.
A simple electric motor has a power source, a permanent magnet, a rotating loop of wire, and a motor shaft. The shaft is a rod that can what?
The shaft is a rod that can spin and move.
Nuclear power plants split what that contain large amounts of what?
Nuclear power plants split atoms that contain large amounts of energy.
How does a simple electric motor work?
Electric current passes through a wire loop. The magnetic field gets pushed and pulled by pemanent magnets, causing it to spin.