Thanks, Stuart. Now I'll have terms to watch for when I do some research on this.
What auto shop? My school didn't have one.
Though, you would have thought that when we were covering electricity in Physics, they'd have mentioned that, "Oh, and by the way, automotive generators are DC."
But, by that time, there weren't a lot of automotive generators around, and they didn't think that they had to. We did cover the fact that alternators were AC with a DC rectifier, though. Another reason for my confusion. I assumed (I should know better) that they were of the same ilk. Now I know why my dad (who is a mechanical engineer) says, "If it's got that magic electrical [stuff] on it, it's not my problem".
And since I've made an @$$ out of myself... and possibly someone else...
I'm going to go and stand behind my mother and my aunt and look menacing while they yell at my uncle. In other words, something I'm good at.
