For the point..
this can be a very, very large answer, which I have realized as I began to build a website explaining this very subject only a few days ago. But I shall try to cover the basics here, in simple and understandable terms, while retaining as much accuracy as possible.
Electrons have a negative charge. Because like charges repel each other, when an electron gets close to another electron, they will tend to keep their distance.
A magnet is composed of millions of electrons all orbiting their own atoms, just like any other material. What makes a magnet unique, though, is that all of these electrons are orbiting the same direction.
Because of this, the tiny negative charge produced by an electron is ‘amplified’ because of the surrounding charges, and produces a magnetic field; in essence, though, a magnetic field is much like the tiny negative charge of an electron.
So, let’s go inside a generator now. The shaft has many magnets on it that are being spun around and around at a rate of approximately 12,000 RPM (depending on the generator; obviously most generators will not be spinning at any given speed),
and surrounding the magnets are stationary coils of copper wire. This wire is full of electrons, as is any material, but copper has the ability found in many metals to easily transfer an electron from one atom to the next.
So if we get a close look at the inside if the wire, a magnet is getting close at an extraordinary rate. The electrons closest to the magnet begin to be pushed away by the magnetic field, and so they ‘jump’ from their orbit into the orbits surrounding nearby atoms.
Here is where things get interesting.
A copper atom can only easily retain so many electrons. So when an electron forces it’s way in, it also forces an electron out. This electron, too, has to go somewhere, so it hops into the next atom over, pushing yet another electron out. This process continues at an
astounding speed of 186,000 miles per second, which is almost unfathomable. To give you an idea of the speed, it could go around the planet Earth approximately 7.75 times every second.
These electrons all travel to the end of their wire and begin to build up. The copper atoms throughout the wire are now holding extra electrons, and they all need somewhere to go. The generator with the coils of wire might be miles away from your home, but the wires
in your walls are basically just the other end of the generator coils. You take your lamp and plug it into a receptacle, and all of those frantic electrons jump into the copper plug, run a
circuit through the light bulb and experience some extreme resistance, emitting light in the process. Then they continue on to what is called a ground rod, which allows the electrons to flow freely into the earth.
I am looking for the rotation speeds distances of the manetic rotation to the open wire and the need expatiation area needed to fill the wire before it will jump to a gap ground,.
