How can a wire be given a magnetic field?

Question

Also, if a generator stores electric current, is this an accurate statement?

Answer 1

i don't believe a generator stores electric current. generators convert other sources of energy into electric current.

a wire with current running through it generates a magnetic field. if the wire is looped into a coil then its magnetic force is proportionally increased with each loop.

Answer 2

Wire is a non-ferromagnetic material, so it can't really be magnitized in the typical sense. The difference between ferromagnetic and non-ferromagnetic materials is that the magnetic domains of the electrons in something that can be magnetized can be aligned in the same direction, so that there is a net magnetic force. In your copper wire, the electrons all have a magnetic domain, but they are randomly oriented so the net magnetic field is nothing.

Running current throught a wire creates an electrical field, not magnetic as previously mentioned. By wrapping the wire around something ferromagnetic (like iron) the electrical field will align the spin domains in the iron and create a net magnetic field.

So by the same logic, passing the magnetic field from a permanent magnet across a wire will push the electrons in the wire and induce a current. There is a bunch of wire wound up inside a generator that gets passed by permanent magnets to induce a current. But when the generator stops spinning, the current drops off to nothing pretty quick, so it isn't really storing anything.

Answer 3

Current flow in a wire creates a magnetic force field that is constant as long as the current is constant. When the flow stops the field collapses creating a brief flow of current in the opposite direction.

Fleming's Left hand and Right hand rules to determine polarity, current and motion can be found here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleming%27s_right_hand_rule

See this for a multitude of links to related topics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Electromagnetism

The only Generator that could be loosely described as able to store energy would be one containing permanent magnets.

Other wise the energy applied, normally mechanical rotational, is converted to electrical energy. Even a non mechanical driven generator would not have stored energy until components are combined.

Motors are the same except they convert the Electrical Energy to Mechanical Energy.

Answer 4

A wire, a magnetic field and a cutting motion can produce voltage.

Generators produce voltage by rotating the solenoid (wire) through a magnetic field. This action produces voltage.
It does not store electric current. The cutting of magnetic field by the wire produces current.

KNown as Faraday's law.

Answer 5

A wire creates a magnetic field around it when a current is passed through it.

A generator doesn't store current - it creates it.