Re: How is kinetic energy directly converted into electrical energy?

Howard,

In general, kinetic energy is converted into electrical energy through a generator. Essentially, a generator is a motor run in reverse. If you apply electricity to a motor, it produces kinetic energy. If you apply kinetic energy to a motor (drive the motor by some other means), then it will produce electricity.

But, I don't think this is really what you wanted to know. It sounds like you want to know how "kinetic" (also called self-winding) watches work. A kinetic watch never actually turns the kinetic energy from your movement into electrical energy. Rather it stores it as potentially energy in a spring mass system. You see, a kinetic watch is just an old fashioned wind-up watch (not a quartz watch which does use electricity) that uses your movement to wind the watch.

There is an explaination at Howstuffworks.com as to how self-winding watches work. If you want an explaination on how wind-up or pendulum clocks work, I answered that question here on MadSci, which can be found at Re: How do clocks (w/ gears) work?. But I basically referred to Howstuffworks.com again for this explaination.

Hope that answers your question.

Your Mad Scientist,
Mike Scannell