High School
Worksheets
How an Electric Generator Works
Picture shows a late 19th century generator
Almost everyone uses electricity every day. Most of us just flip a switch and the light turns on or a motor starts running. Where does the electricity come from that makes all of those things work?
In most cases, electricity is produced in an electro-mechanical device called a generator. A generator is a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. Electricity can be produced or "generated" because of a principle called electromagnetic induction. This principle was discovered by a British and an American scientist. Their names were Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry. The principle states that when an electric conductor, like a copper wire, is moved through a magnetic field, electric current will flow through the conductor. Faraday and Henry also found that when a magnet is moved inside a coil of wire, electric current is generated.
