single ideal rotational speed where efficiency is at its peak.
Despite huge developments in materials science and metallurgy, today’s electric motors, whether they’re tiny or enormous, share that same exact basic design. And with that design come limitations. One of the biggest limitations is the efficiency curve. Every electric motor has a single ideal rotational speed where efficiency is at its peak. It’s at that speed that the motor puts out the most torque for the energy invested. Spin it faster or slower, and the power-to-energy-invested ratio begins to drop off. When this drop-off takes place, not only is energy lost to inefficiency but resistance and heat increase as well. With added heat comes additional wear and tear and a shortened service life. Engineers have been living with this limitation from the very beginning of the story of the electric motor. They’ve invented transmissions to minimize the effects, but in the end, more add-ons only complicated the mechanism, adding yet more inefficiency to...
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