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Explaining reactive power

Submitted by Hans De Keulenaer on Mon, 2006-04-17 09:47.

A minute lecture proposing four different analogies on reactive power:

  • The tandem analogy
  • The horse-boat analogy
  • The inclined-plane analogy
  • The trampoline analogy

Did anyone ever ask you what reactive power is? Did you manage to explain? Reactive power is an important aspect of the electrical system, but one that is difficult to grasp. Several analogies can be made to visualize this abstract phenomenon. Of course, none of them are 100% correct, but we hope they will give you inspiration while clarifying the concept to others.

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Explaining reactive power

Submitted by nahiahmed on Sun, 2007-12-23 19:23.

The reactive power is too difficult to explain! For experienced person, I say that reactive power has no relation with energy (power). It's a misleading quantity (erroneous name). Thus, the commonly known definitions always conduce to impasses in non linear load cases. For the beginners, I think that all these analogies are good to explain simply the reactive power (in linear load).

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