I recently bought a Snap Circuit kit for my son that we have been using to build various projects offered in the provided manual. We started with a simple switched light like so:
Then we added a motor with a fan like so:
As one might expect, the light grew dimmer as now the light was sharing the electricity with the fan.
Then Asher took the fan off the motor and something unexpected happened – the light turned on momentarily (when the switch was turned on) and then went out (added detail: I neglected to mention initially that the motor is still rotating at a high speed, it doesn’t stop even though the light goes out). Like so:
It is this last result that has us confused. Shouldn’t the motor be consuming less electricity since it doesn’t have to overcome the air resistance caused by the fan?
I’m a tech guy, but not an electrical guy, any ideas?