The Direct Current Electrical Motor Model illustrates a simple direct current (DC) motor. The model shows an external magnet (called the stator because it's fixed in place) and a turning coil of wire called an armature ( rotor or coil, because it rotates). The armature, carrying current provided by the battery, is an electromagnet, because a current-carrying wire generates a magnetic field; invisible magnetic field lines are circulating all around the wire of the armature.  The key to producing motion is positioning the electromagnet within the magnetic field of the permanent magnet (its field runs from its north to south poles). The armature experiences a force described by the left hand rule. This interplay of magnetic fields and moving charged particles (the electrons in the current) results in the magnetic force (depicted by the green arrows) that makes the armature spin because of the torque. Use the slider current I to see what happens when the flow of current is reversed. The checkbox current flow & electron flow alows different visualization since I = d(Q)/dt and Q= number of charge*e. The Play & Pause button allows freezing the 3D view for visualizing these forces, for checking for consistency with the left hand rule .

Please note that this resource requires Java (JRE).