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lwoodlore
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Homework Statement
Both an electric motor and a generator consists of coils of wires on a rotor spinning in a magnetic field. The difference is whether you desire mechanical or electrical energy as the product. If current is generated when the rotor is made to spin by either the mechanical or electrical energy then is a motor also a generator when it is running? The choices are:
a) Yes, it will send electric energy output through the input lines and back to the source
b) It would if it weren't designed with an internal bypass circuit to prevent the problem.
c) No, the device is either a motor of a generator and both at the same time would violate energy conservation.
Explain.
I think it is (a) since it has back EMF when the electric source is stopped but that doesn't mean it is always feeding some back since electrons are going either one way or the other and not both. So I'm confused by the question...