Question

Explain in detail the different schools of thought between Tesla and Edison in regards to electric current (2 paragraphs)

Answer 1

Edison developed a cost-effective means of generating DC electricity, and a suite of related devices, including motors and meters to measure DC energy consumed. However, there was a problem. There was no way back then to convert the DC voltage to higher or lower values. To be safe for use in homes and factories, the DC generators were designed to produce electricity at low voltages. The downside was that this meant the losses during transmission from the generator to the consumer were high. Edison judged that to be an acceptable compromise, but it limited the distance between the generator and consumers to less than a kilometre or two.

In the other camp, Tesla had a secret weapon known as the transformer. It is a simple arrangement of iron cores and copper windings that allows voltage to be converted up or down. The limitation is that transformers only work with AC electricity.

With transformers, Tesla could boost the generator output to thousands of volts for low-loss transmission over long distances then cut the voltage down again to safe values for final delivery to the consumer.