Quick and easy explaination of AC and DC?

Question

I'm 15 and quite knowledgeable technically.
And I have this speech class tomorrow were I have to do a 3-5 minute speech about some historical figure, I choose Nikola Tesla.
Any ideas how I could explain Alternating Current and Direct Current to a group consisting of about 20 ppl ages 7 to 17? If I had to guess I'd say I'm the only person who really knows who Tesla even is.
So it has to be very layman.

Thanks!

Answer 1

the hard part about electricity is visualizing it. Compare electricity to an easier form of energy.

Consider a water mill...driven by flowing water...just like an electric motor is driven by flowing electricity.

If it runs on a constant flow of water like in a river...that is like running on direct current (water current instead of electric current). The water pressure is equivalent to the electric voltage.

If it runs on an occilating flow of water...like the ocean current...that would be alternating current. For instance, the water that runs up on the beach first flows onto the beach, then retacts backwards. The flow of water alternates from positive to negative. A motor can be designed to run on water that runs in either direction.

Another example...electric batteries are similar to inflated balloons. If you open the mouth of the balloon, the air flows out at a rate proportional to the pressure inside the balloon. As the pressure decreases, so does the flow of air. In a battery, as the voltage drops, the flow of electricity drops and whatever it is running slows down (i.e. a flashlight dims).

Answer 2

When the electric company produces power to sell they have generators that make an output with a specific electrical force called volts. Those generators can make a quantity of that output to power the lamps and appliances of those customers. The amount of electricity that flows is called the current.

Generators are turned by mechanical forces like water driven turbines or steam driven turbines. They rotate a large coil of wire through a magnetic field to generate electricity when the coils spin through that field.

Depending on how the coils and the magnetic fields are positioned physically and wired out to the users they can either generate their voltage and its accompanying current at a steady value (called DC, direct current) or they can generate it so that periodically the voltage and its accompanying current start at zero and go up to to a maximum and then down to a minimum (called AC, alternating current).

The advantage of AC is that by linking together coils with different numbers of turns of wire the AC voltage can easily be transformed to a higher voltage to minimize the losses that occur when the power is sent to the users. When it gets to the users the AC voltage can be transformed back to the voltage that users need for their lamps and appliances. Tesla recognized the savings from that ability of AC to be transformed.

Answer 3

AC is alternating current and DC is direct current. Edison and most of his contemporaries touted DC as the best method to get electricity to the consumer due to ease of control. Tesla disagreed. He thought AC with its easier property of transformation to higher or lower voltages was the better. He also thought that AC was more efficient due to being off 2 times a second. Actually both are right. AC is the more efficient means of distribution of electricity to consumers. However, Edison was correct in that DC was the easier to control. Almost everything electronic in nature is DC and operated by logic circuits that are either off or on. So electricity to the consumer is both DC and AC. Hope this helps

Answer 4

A band like AC/DC could no longer pull a love ballad without ruining their photograph. They artwork for some bands, and that they do no longer for others. AC/DC is almost thoroughly diverse from the different band on the scene. they are all in favour of exciting, kicking lower back, and letting it out. I doubt the lads might **** around and do it.

Answer 5

ac, alternating current, is generated by a magneto, dc, direct current, is stored in a battery.

Answer 6

AC+DC=ACDC!!!!!! you no- the rock band whao par-tee!