CHAPTER 6Electric Motors
The superior AC system will replace the entrenched but inferior DC one.—George Westinghouse (from Tesla: Man Out of Time)
Electric motors are everywhere. In your house, almost every mechanical movement that you see around you is caused by an alternating-current (AC) or direct-current (DC) electric motor. A simple electric motor has six parts:
• Armature or rotor
• Commutator
• Brushes
• Axle
• Field magnet
• DC power supply of some sort1
By understanding how a motor works, you can learn a lot about magnets, electromagnets, and electricity in general. In this chapter you will learn what makes electric motors tick.
The heart of every electric vehicle (EV) is its electric motor. Electric motors come in all sizes, shapes, ...
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