The academic study of electric machines is the universal study of electric motors and electric generators. By the classic definition, electric machine is synonymous with electric motor or electric generator, all of which are electromechanical energy converters: converting electricity to mechanical power (i.e., electric motor) or mechanical power to electricity (i.e., electric generator). The movement involved in the mechanical power can be rotating or linear.
Although transformers do not contain any moving parts they are also included in the family of electric machines because they utilise electromagnetic phenomena.
Electric machines (i.e., electric motors) consume approximately 60% of all electricity produced. Electric machines (i.e., electric generators) produce virtually all electricity consumed. Electric machines have become so ubiquitous that they are virtually overlooked as an integral component of the entire electricity infrastructure. Developing ever more efficient electric machine technology and influencing their use are crucial to any global conservation, green energy, or alternative energy strategy.
Read more about Electric Machine: Classifications
Famous quotes containing the words electric and/or machine:
“The more I see of democracy the more I dislike it. It just brings everything down to the mere vulgar level of wages and prices, electric light and water closets, and nothing else.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The cycle of the machine is now coming to an end. Man has learned much in the hard discipline and the shrewd, unflinching grasp of practical possibilities that the machine has provided in the last three centuries: but we can no more continue to live in the world of the machine than we could live successfully on the barren surface of the moon.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)