Electric Motor

An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy, producing torque through the interaction between a magnetic field and an electric current flowing through wire windings; an electric generator performs the same interaction in reverse. Michael Faraday gave the first demonstration of the effect with genuine rotary motion on 3 September 1821 in the basement of the Royal Institution, using a free-hanging wire that circled a permanent magnet standing in a pool of mercury, the earliest conversion of electrical energy into continuous rotational motion. Modern motors are classified as brushed or brushless, single-phase, two-phase or three-phase, powered by direct current or alternating current, and cooled by air or liquid, ranging in scale from tiny motors inside disk drives to massive motors driving marine propulsion and pipeline compressors. Electric motors are the largest single consumer of electricity in modern economies; in the United States they consume more than half of all the electric energy produced, powering pumps, fans, blowers, machine tools, household appliances, power tools and vehicles.