Electrical generators - what do they do?
Teaching Guidance for 14-16
Electricity is not made by generators
Wrong Track: Electric generators make electricity.
Right Lines: Electrical generators make energy available using an electrical pathway. Electrical generators switch power to the electrical pathway.
The charge is already in the loop: the generator sets them in motion
Thinking about the learning
The idea that electric generators make electricity
is quite a common one and portrays similar thinking to the idea that electric cells provide electricity
. The image here is one of the generator or the cell acting as a store of something called electricity
. In fact, the cell or generator provides a potential difference that sets the charge in motion, creating an electrical pathway.