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Maxwell's Laws Tour

Electric Meter

The electric meter on your house or apartment is just another electric motor. A small part of the current you draw into your house is split off and run down through the meter. A brush is used to contact the spining meter and keep current flowing the same direction. A magnetic field is set up inside the meter to act upon the current in the meter. Why does the meter spin faster if you use more current? What would happen if the brush wasn't there? What equation would you use to determine the amount of current the house used if you knew the magnetic field, how far the meter had rotated, the force required to spin the meter and assumed there was no friction?