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electric generator: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As dynamo

Photos

sine wave
elementary synchronous generator
three-phase winding
waveforms of a three-phase system
cross section of two poles
direct-current generators
Diagram of a car highlighting its electrical system, with labeled components such as the instrument panel, ignition system, battery, fuse blocks, wiring harnesses, and spark plugs, showing how power is distributed to various vehicle functions.
Alternating-current (AC) and direct-current (DC) generators (top and bottom, respectively). The basic generator design consists of a loop or coil of wire (armature) rotating in a magnetic field. The magnetic field causes a current to flow in the moving wire, via induction. Whether alternating or direct current is generated depends on whether the ends of the looped wire are attached to a set of slip rings (AC) or to a commutator (DC).
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Key People

Charles Steinmetz.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz
American engineer
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Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton
British inventor
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John Hopkinson
British physicist
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Silvanus Phillips Thompson
British physicist and historian
Edward Weston
Edward Weston
British-born American engineer and industrialist
Brush, Charles Francis
Charles Francis Brush
American inventor and industrialist
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Francis Robbins Upton
American mathematician and physicist
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
British physicist and chemist

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