200 Years with Electric Motors
With so much of our lives impacted by electric motors, you'd think they have been around for thousands of years. But they have not! Electric motors are just now approaching only 2 centuries in age. In such a short time, they have seriously come to the forefront in powering our lives....mostly in a good way I think.
Early on, electric motors were limited because of a lack of power supply. But with the advent and readily available electricity, electric motors flourished. So many advancements occurred in such a short time (mostly in the last 100 years), that's it's almost inconceivable to someone who lived at the beginnings of this country.
Practical Application with Electric Motors
Most of us have the out of site, out of mind thing going on when it comes to electric motors. We just don't think about them because plugging something in and pressing a button is all that's involved for us. Or even simpler. We go to the wall and flip a switch.
Two household essentials that I'm referring to here are the vacuum cleaner and the air conditioner. Both make use of electric motors to perform the tasks they were designed to do. I just don't think much about the electric motor part and I'm sure you probably don't either.
Around the house, electric motors are used in things as small as your wristwatch. They're used in your washer and dryer. Refrigerators have them as do freezers. Blenders, food processors, garbage disposals, and computers. You get my gist here. So many appliances and tools around the house use electric motors that's it's challenging for modern people to conceive the inconveniences of life without them. For sure, we were hot in the summer and had to do an awful lot of things manually and it took a lot more time, too.
Electric Motors Size & Relevance
Size matters, huh. Well, electric motors can be HUGE. They can also be tiny and fit in the palm of your hand. As technology advances, I think we'll see them getting even smaller.
They've become so advanced and reliable that they're replacing things like hydraulics in airplanes. A lot of our rapid rail within cities is powered by electric motors.
So, it's not just within pipelines and shipping that you see the big electric motors. They're involved in all sorts of manufacturing. Bottom line, they're everywhere and going to even more places where they are not....and soon. So much of our modern economy is geared around them that it will be hard to see the next evolution of things without them.
How to build a simple electric motor, plus how it works.
If you want to delve deeper into this topic, Wikipedia has a great article that you will be taken to when you click on the link here in electric motors.