by slowing down; the current increases and the torque rises in proportion to the square of the current since the same current flows in both the armature and the field windings. If the motor is stalled, the current is limited only by the total resistance of the windings and the torque can be very high, and there is a danger of the windings becoming overheated. The counter-EMF aids the armature resistance to limit the current through the armature. When power is first applied to a motor, the armature does not rotate. At that instant, the counter-EMF is zero and the only factor limiting the armature current is the armature resistance. Usually the armature resistance of a motor is low; therefore the current through the armature would be very large when the power is applied. Therefore the need can arise for an additional resistance in series with the armature to limit the current until the motor rotation can build up the counter-EMF. As the motor rotation builds up, the resistance is gradually cut out. The speed-torque characteristic is an almost perfectly straight line between the stall torque and the no-load speed. This suits large inertial loads as the speed will drop until the motor slowly starts to rotate and these motors have a very high stalling torque. As the speed increases, the inductance of the rotor means that the ideal commutating point changes. Small motors typically have fixed commutation. While some larger universal motors have rotatable commutation, this is rare. Instead larger universal motors often have compensation windings in series with the motor, or sometimes inductively coupled, and placed at ninety electrical degrees to the main field axis. These reduce the reactance of the armature, and improve the commutation. One useful property of having the field windings in series with the armature winding is that as the speed increases the counter EMF naturally reduces the voltage across, and current through the field windings, giving field weakening at high speeds. This means that the motor has no theoretical maximum speed for any particular applied voltage. Universal motors can be and are generally run at high speeds, 4000–16000RPM, and can go over 20,000RPM. By way of contrast, AC synchronous and squirrel cage induction motors cannot turn a shaft faster than allowed by the power line frequency. In countries with 60Hz AC supply, this speed is limited to 3600RPM. Motor damage may occur from