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Comment on No rare earth metals in the Model Sparent

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I actually wasn't aware that induction motors don't use permanent magnets. RC model aircraft is a hobby of mine, and all I knew is that the commonly-used brushless AC motors certainly use permanent magnets.

As a first order simplification, motors are all about pairs of magnetic fields attracting / repelling each other. Often, one side of the pair is a permanent magnet. If instead the magnetism is induced (implying no magnet involved, as the other side must be switchable / controllable / varying, thus not a permanent magnet), you have an induction motor.

At low power levels, permanent magnet motors (specifically brushless motors) tend to have higher efficiency than induction motors, additionally, they don't require complicated control systems to operate efficiently at varying speeds. Thus you are unlikely to see an induction motor in an RC model anytime soon.

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