How Is Electricity Actually Made?

Step 1 of 5

A moving magnet pushes electrons.

Hold a magnet still by a wire and nothing happens. Move it, and the electrons in the wire are shoved sideways. The movement is essential — a still magnet makes no electricity at all.

Step 2 of 5

More coils, more push.

One loop of wire gives a feeble push. Wind the wire into hundreds of loops and every loop adds its own, which is why a real generator is a fat spool rather than a single strand.

Step 3 of 5

Spinning reverses it twice a turn.

As the magnet spins, each pole passes the coil in turn, so the push flips direction twice per revolution. That flipping back and forth is what alternating current is.

Step 4 of 5

A motor is the same machine backwards.

Put electricity into a generator and the shaft turns; turn the shaft and electricity comes out. Electric cars use exactly this to recharge slightly every time they brake.

Step 5 of 5

Something always has to do the turning.

Generators do not make energy, they convert it. Steam, falling water, wind or a diesel engine has to do the spinning — and the harder the electrical demand, the harder that thing must push.

Switch on a big appliance and the generator gets physically harder to turn. The extra electricity has to come from somewhere.