Transformers
| Transformers can either increase or decrease the voltage of an alternating current. This ability to change voltage is one of the main reasons alternating current (in preference to direct current where electrons travel in one direction) is generated in Hydro Tasmania's power stations. |
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A simple transformer uses an iron bar shaped to form a square. The current-carrying wire is wound around one side. This has the effect of turning the iron into an electro-magnet. This changing magnetic field will cause an electric pressure in any coil of wire wound around the other side of the piece of iron. If the secondary coil has 10 times as many turns of wire as the primary coil it will have 10 times the voltage. If it has half as many turns it will have half the voltage.
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