How to Use alternating current in a Sentence

alternating current

noun
  • When the power is on, an alternating current passes through the coil.
    — Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee, 17 Jan. 2025
  • The wave, in turn, causes an alternating current in the second wire.
    — Bhaskar Krishnamachari, The Conversation, 12 Jan. 2021
  • But clocks that measure time by that alternating current have been fooled by the drop in frequency.
    — Valerie Hopkins and Richard PÉrez-PeÑa, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2018
  • There's no snark, no alternating current of irony to undermine the earnestness of the plea.
    — Philip Martin, Arkansas Online, 24 Nov. 2019
  • Still, alternating current back then did have one major downside — poor equipment.
    — Sam Kean, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2021
  • Driving the stator coils with alternating current causes the rotor to spin.
    — Carl Bugeja, IEEE Spectrum, 24 Aug. 2018
  • As in the rest of the world, India’s main power grid is based on alternating current (AC).
    — IEEE Spectrum, 31 Jan. 2017
  • The dizzying alternating current that defines a career in show business settled in to become the simple ebb and flow of our lives.
    — Tony Goldwyn, Variety, 20 Oct. 2023
  • This is the charger that comes with the car that owners can plug into any 120-volt alternating current wall outlet.
    — Dan Carney, Popular Science, 8 Jan. 2021
  • Battery storage units store energy from the sun as alternating current power for later use.
    — Corrinne Hess, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 29 Mar. 2022
  • But the players maintained their assiduous fire, plugged into the alternating current of past and present.
    — Matthew Guerrieri, Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2019
  • Bowen and Blankson-Wood get the alternating current of the brothers’ connection just right.
    — New York Times, 25 Jan. 2022
  • The inverter also controls the speed of the motor by varying the frequency of the alternating current.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 26 Mar. 2023
  • Tesla takes his ideas for an alternating current motor to Westinghouse, who is more receptive.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Sep. 2017
  • The original plan called for the construction of two transmission lines, one alternating current and one direct current.
    — Jake Frederico, The Arizona Republic, 29 Mar. 2023
  • In one membrane, the wire had an alternating current applied to periodically heat it.
    — Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 11 Sep. 2018
  • That changing magnetic field in turn induces an alternating current and voltage in another coil—the secondary.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 29 June 2017
  • But connecting your car’s battery (and its direct current) to your house (which runs on alternating current) involves some extra equipment.
    — Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2023
  • It is then adjusted—as the current changes—by a power electronics system that feeds alternating current to the stator windings.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 June 2017
  • There are high voltage wiring systems, on-board chargers that convert alternating current power to direct current to charge the batteries.
    — Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Homes, however, are wired for alternating current where the flow reverses many times per second to safely power appliances.
    — Dianne Plummer, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2025
  • But solar panels produce direct current, with electronic systems matching it to the alternating current of the grid.
    — John Timmer, ArsTechnica, 28 Apr. 2025
  • The alternating current going through power lines in the US cycles at a frequency of 60 hertz.
    — Umair Irfan, Wired News, 26 Apr. 2025
  • The facility has a maximum net output of less than 1 megawatt (as measured in alternating current), 2.
    — Lynn Mucenski Keck, Forbes, 2 Aug. 2022
  • Central to the movie’s gathering power is its time-shifting structure, which folds the recent past into the current story like alternating currents.
    — Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 27 July 2024
  • Modern electric cars instead use alternating current, supplied by an inverter.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 22 June 2017
  • To avoid large losses of power over long distances, the electricity must be converted from alternating current to direct current, and then back again at the other end.
    — New York Times, 4 Jan. 2022
  • The whole array is hardwired to a compact power unit in the rear of the car, which converts solar power into 120-volt alternating current.
    — Ben Coxworth, New Atlas, 10 Dec. 2024
  • One-legged, blade-shaped, and driven by an alternating current, this new robot moves with a cockroachlike bouncing motion at a speed of 20 body lengths per second (above).
    — Kelly Mayes, Science | AAAS, 31 July 2019
  • By switching on and off in a precise sequence, the transistors produce alternating current in three distinct phases, causing the car’s drive motor to rotate.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 10 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'alternating current.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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