Sine waves in mains transformers

Thread Starter

dragon24

Joined Dec 23, 2010
6
Hi there really stuck on this, wondering if anyone could help it. why are sine waves used within mains transformers?. Got an assignment due in a bit, clueless at the moment. I know that transformers operate in AC that's all! quite new to all this! if anyone can help it would be great :D
 

harry99932

Joined Dec 30, 2010
38
Not sure if im missing something here, mains electricity is alternating current generated by a generator, Im going to say all COMMON rotating electrical generators provide a sine wave output but no doubt someone will find an oddity to prove me wrong:D Its not a case of specifically picking sinewaves for use in transformers as it its a case of thats whats availiable.
Also sine waves have a lot of nice mathematically properties that make life a lot easier than running mains square wave lol
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
Adding to the above, only the alternating current can excite the inducting coils of a transformer, DC current simply doesn't work.
Furthermore, a low frequency sine wave is ideal for transformation of power purposes, as it is transformed linearly for the most part. Square and triangular waves contain high-frequency harmonics which saturate and overheat the transformer.

More on transformers on the resident e-book.
 
Top