Video narration
A three-phase induction motor starts with three AC currents: Phase A, Phase B, and Phase C. They’re the same shape, but shifted by exactly 120 electrical degrees. Each phase energizes its own stator winding, so each winding makes a magnetic field that rises and falls in time. Because the three fields peak one after another, they add up to one magnetic field that smoothly rotates around the stator. Think of three people pushing a wheel, taking turns every third of a cycle—the push point moves, so the wheel sees a rotating shove. That rotating stator field sweeps past the rotor conductors and “cuts” them. By Faraday’s law, this changing magnetic influence induces current in the rotor bars. The rotor current creates its own magnetic field. Now the stator’s rotating field pulls on the rotor’s field, producing torque, so the rotor accelerates in the same direction as the rotating field. But it must run slightly slower. That speed difference is slip. Without slip, the field wouldn’t sweep past the rotor, no current would be induced, and no torque would be produced.