Yeah I was just curious because it's a difficult thing to wrap my mind around on the physics side of things. Like it is capable of generating energy and that energy could be used to spin the motor, but the two parts are opposites. It's like using the energy from a flywheel to spin that same flywheel.

[–] cam_i_am 2 points 2 weeks ago

In general it is often true that a motor and a generator are two sides of the same coin.

If you put a current through a wire you can make a magnet move which can be used to spin a motor. And symmetrically, if you spin a wire and make its magnet move near a wire you can induce a current in the wire.

Depends on the exact wiring and stuff but yeah sometimes you can damage a motorised device by manually spinning the thing without turning it on.