It might be enlightening for many to see the oscilloscope pattern from an alternator.
http://www.bcae1.com/charging.htm
I find it interesting that we often have our own terminology for explaining how things function yet have the same practical understanding of the system. I learned to understand electrical energy comparing it to water pressure. Throwing buckets of water into a water tank is a somewhat gallon by gallon procedure that can increase the level, keep the level constant or allow the level to fall depending on the out flow and the capacity of the bucket brigade. There are, however, a great many people much wiser than me who cannot grasp an understanding of electricity yet can calculate the circumference of the sun from a few photographs form Palo Alto. To each his own, as they say.