1. Distinguish between a generator and motor?

Answer :
The primary difference between a motor and a generator is that one converts electrical energy into
mechanical energy (that's the motor) and the other converts mechanical energy into electrical energy
(that's the generator).

In some cases of direct current (DC) machines, but not alternating current (AC) machines, there is so little
difference that a single device (it might be called a motor-generator) can be used as either a motor or a
generator.

A superb example of this would be the motor-generator that is used in electric vehicles: when the vehicle
is accelerated, the batteries supply power to the motor-generator and it acts as a motor, driving the
wheels. When the brake is applied, the motor-generator shifts function and the vehicle's inertia is used by
the motor-generator to generate electricity and put some energy back into the batteries. This slows the
vehicle down. The one device (the motor-generator) is being used in either capacity. The "handle" often
applied to electric vehicles with this feature is dynamic braking.

2. What is an armature?
Answer:
1. The part of an electric motor or generator that consists of wire wound around an iron core and carries an
electric current. In motors and generators using direct current, the armature rotates within a magnetic field; in
motors and generators using alternating current a magnetic field is rotated about the armature.
2. A piece of soft iron connecting the poles of a magnet.
3. Coil in which voltage is induced by motion through a magnetic field.
4. The rotating part of a dynamo, consisting essentially of copper wire wound around an iron core.

3. What is a field?

4. What two important requirements are necessary before generator action is possible?

5. What two important requirements are necessary before motor action is possible?

6. In what two ways is it possible to generate a higher voltage in a moving conductor?

7. In an actual generator, what effect has the number of parallel paths in the armature winding upon the terminal
voltage?

8. What effect has the number of armature paths upon the current-carrying ability of a generator?

9. Is the power output of a generator affected by the number of parallel paths in the armature winding? Give
reasons for your answer.

10. What two factors determine the direction of the generated voltage in a conductor moving through a magnetic
field?

11. Explain how the direction of the generated voltage may be determined.

12. What is meant by the frequency of an alternating current?

13. Describe the commutation process in a dc motor?

14. Why is it desirable to have many coils of wire and commutator segments on the armature of dc generator?

15. What is meant by torque?

16. What factors determine the force exerted by a conductor on the armature of a dc motor?

17. Will a force be exerted by a conductor carrying a current when it is placed parallel to a magnetic field? Explain.

18. What happens to the existing uniform field if a conductor carrying a current is placed in this field?

19. Why is no torque developed by those conductors occupying positions in the interpolar spaces of a motor?

20. What two types of field winding are used in dc machines and how do they differ from each other?