Motors and movement in products
Design & Technology · Key Stage 2 · The School
What a motor does
A MOTOR turns electrical energy into spinning movement. Give it electricity and its shaft turns. It keeps turning for as long as the electricity flows. On its own, a motor can only spin. Everything else it does in a product comes from what is joined to that spinning shaft. A motor with nothing attached just spins uselessly in the air.
Changing the motor's movement
A motor usually spins too fast to be useful on its own. It does not have much turning force either. Gears slow it down and add force. A belt or pulley can move that spin to a different place. A cam can turn the spin into an up-and-down movement instead. Choosing the right connection is what turns a spinning shaft into a useful product.
Motors are everywhere
A toy car's wheels turn because of a motor. So does a washing machine's drum. So does an electric toothbrush's head, and a hairdryer's fan. Each one is geared or connected differently. The motor itself barely changes. What changes is everything attached to it. It is worth counting how many motors you meet before lunchtime alone.
The very same small motor could drive three different products. Connected directly to a wheel, it becomes a toy car. Connected through gears to slow it right down, it becomes a strong, slow winch. Connected to a cam, it turns into an automated pop-up display, rising and falling on repeat. The motor itself never changed. Only what was built around it did.