alternating current

noun

Definition of alternating current

: an electric current that reverses its direction at regularly recurring intervals —abbreviation AC

Examples of alternating current in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The night before the event, the organizers realized that the hotel's electric supply was direct current and the ranges required alternating current. — Judy Buchenot, Naperville Sun, "Suburban Cooks: Mints go from trash to treasured cookies," 13 July 2018 George Westinghouse was mainly responsible for the U.S.’s adoption of electric power transmission using the alternating current. — Thomas Gryta, WSJ, "Why Thomas Edison Would Not Be Happy About GE’s Latest Deal," 23 May 2018 During the night, workers cut a hole in the hotel's wall, dropped a cable four stories to the street below and then pulled the cable through a manhole to the New York Central Railway, which used alternating current. — Judy Buchenot, Naperville Sun, "Suburban Cooks: Mints go from trash to treasured cookies," 13 July 2018 One pair emits a high-frequency alternating current, which measures the coin's surface characteristics—for example, a stamping of Washington or Jefferson. — Kevin Dupzyk, Popular Mechanics, "Things Come Apart: A Pay Phone," 27 Nov. 2015 The device is subject to high internal temperatures that can damage transistors that convert lower-voltage direct current from the battery to higher-voltage alternating current for the motor. — Ralph Vartabedian, latimes.com, "Electrical defects cause Priuses to stall; Toyota may be bracing for a legal fight as safety worries grow," 23 Apr. 2018 This takes the 206-volt direct current (DC) from the Prius’s nickel metal-hydride battery and converts it into the three-phase 500-volt alternating current (AC) needed to drive the car’s two electric motor/generators. — The Economist, "Do electric cars dream of software fixes?," 22 Apr. 2018 Whatever the mechanism, all electric motors, whether their input current is AC or DC, require an alternating current in their stator windings to make their rotors spin. — The Economist, "Do electric cars dream of software fixes?," 22 Apr. 2018 The plant will create energy by converting sunlight via photovoltaic solar arrays into direct current electricity and converting it into alternating current utilizing power inverters. — Austen Erblat, Sun-Sentinel.com, "FPL gets site plan and plat approval for Westlake solar plant," 6 Apr. 2018

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