"Ben Jackson" wrote in message
news:veiNb.66937$xy6.125476@attbi_s02...
In article ,
S Narayan wrote:

If memory serves, 3-phase power is more efficiently distributed

I thought the advantage of 3 phase was that the peaks of the sine waves
were evenly distributed making it more efficient for running motors.
But this was in the context of home/shop power where the single phase
in a standard home is inefficient with big motors.


Yes, I imagine that's another reason to use 3phase for high power motors,
where the torque is more uniformly available. I am probably getting out of
my league here but, separate windings carry different current phases which
translates to thinner copper for the same power and smoother operation, if
this makes sense. The same argument applies for a generator.