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How is alternating current made?

Can someone give me an easy explenation as to how alternating current is made? I don't want to hear about how an AC generator makes it or how a magnet going in the middle of a coil of wire, I just want to know how is it made. What happens for electricity to be made and why does that electricity become an alternating current.

3 Answers

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  • 4 weeks ago

    Electricity is never made.  It is always present everywhere. The wire is full of charges.  What we do is put a force on those charges and make them move.  We CAN use a magnet to put a force on charges.  We CAN use chemicals also.  If the force is always in one direction the charges also move in only one direction.  DC.  If we push one way and then pull back the charges move one way then back again to their starting point. Because the direction alternates then we call it ALTERNATING CURRENT (AC).

  • 4 weeks ago

    Then how does a magnet going through a coil of wire make an alternating current? Because unless I missed something, you should only have to put a magnet through a coil of wire to make alternating current, and not have to spin the wire, but you say a coil of wire rotating is what makes alternating current. This is the exact problem I was trying to avoid when asking this question. Nevermind I found out you can also spin the magnet. Nevermind again I still don't know how electricity is made. Is there something in the wire, in the air, in everything?

  • 4 weeks ago

    The coil of wire rotating in the magnetic field is the reason the electric current is alternating.

    If you don't want to know about the mechanics of it you will not find out anything about why it is AC.

    You want a simple answer ! There is no simple answer !

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