electromagnetic field experiments

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Electromagnetism Experiments

Electric current flowing through a wire creates a magnetic field that attracts ferromagnetic objects, such as iron or steel. This is the principle behind electromagnets and magnetic levitation trains. It allows cranes to pick up whole cars in the junkyard and makes your doorbell ring. You can read about it here , and then watch it work when you do these experiments. (Adult supervision recommended.)

Electromagnetic Experiments

-Electromagnetic Suction -Electromagnet -Magnetic Propulsion

Experiment 1: Electromagnetic Suction

A single strand of wire produces only a very weak magnetic field, but a tight coil of wire (called a solenoid ) gives off a stronger field. In this experiment, you will use an electric current running through a solenoid to suck a needle into a straw!

What You Need:

• drinking straw
• 5 feet insulated copper wire
• 6-volt battery

What You Do:

1. Make your solenoid. Take five feet of insulated copper wire and wrap it tightly around the straw. Your solenoid should be about 3 inches long, so you’ll have enough wire to wrap a couple of layers.

2. Trim the ends of the straw so they just stick out of the solenoid.

3. Hold the solenoid horizontally and put the end of the needle in the straw and let go. What happens?

4. Now strip an inch of insulation off each end of the wire and connect the ends to the 6-volt battery. Insert the needle part-way in the straw again and let go. This time what happens? (Don’t leave the wire hooked up to the battery for more than a few seconds at a time – it will get hot and drain the battery very quickly)

When you hooked your solenoid up to a battery, an electric current flowed through the coils of the wire, which created a magnetic field. This field attracted the needle just like a magnet and sucked it into the straw. Try some more experiments with your solenoid – will more coils make it suck the needle in faster? Will it still work with just a few coils? Make a prediction and then try it out!

Experiment 2: Electromagnet

As you saw in the last experiment, electric current flowing through a wire produces a magnetic field. This principle comes in very handy in the form of an electromagnet. An electromagnet is wire that is tightly wrapped around a ferromagnetic core. When the wire is connected to a battery, it produces a magnetic field that magnetizes the core. The magnetic fields of the core and the solenoid work together to make a very strong magnet. The best part about it is that the magnetic force stops when the electricity is turned off! Try it yourself with this experiment:

• large iron nail

1. Tightly wrap the wire around the nail to make a solenoid with a ferromagnetic core. If you have enough wire, wrap more than one layer. (If your nail fits inside the straw from the last experiment, you can use that solenoid instead of rewrapping the wire.)

2. Try to pick up some paperclips with the wire-wrapped nail. Can you do it?

3. Strip an inch of insulation off each end of the wire.

4. Hook up the wire to the battery and try again to pick up the paperclips with the nail. This time the electricity will create a magnetic field and the nail will attract paperclips! (Don’t leave the wire hooked up to the battery for more than a few seconds at a time – it will get hot and drain the battery very quickly.)

Experiment some more with your electromagnet. Count how many paperclips it can pick up. If you coil more wire around it will it pick up more paperclips? How many paperclips can you pick up if you only use half as much wire? What would happen if you used a smaller battery, like a D-size? Predict what you think will happen and then try it out!

Experiment 3: Magnetic Propulsion

A maglev (magnetically levitated) train doesn’t use a regular engine like a normal train. Instead, electromagnets in the track produce a magnetic force that pushes the train from behind and pulls it from the front. You can get an idea of how it works using some permanent magnets and a toy car.

• 3 bar magnets

1. Tape a bar magnet to a small toy car with the north pole at the back of the car and the south pole at the front.

2. Put the car on a hard surface, like a linoleum floor or a table. Hold a bar magnet behind the car with the south pole facing the car. As you move it near the car, what happens? The south pole of your magnet repels the north pole of the magnet on the car, making the car move forward.

3. Have someone else hold another magnet in front of the car, with the north pole facing the car. Does the car move faster with one magnet ‘pushing’ from behind and the other magnet ‘pulling’ from ahead?

In our example, the permanent magnets have to move with the car to keep it going. In a maglev track, though, the electromagnets just change their poles by changing the direction of the electric current. They stay in the same spot, but their poles change as the train goes by so it will always be repelled from the electromagnets behind it and attracted by the electromagnets in front of it!

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• Intro Lab - Build an Electromagnet

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In this hands-on electronics experiment, you will build an electromagnet and learn about electromagnetism including the relationship of magnetic polarity to current flow.

Project overview.

In this project, you will build and test the electromagnet circuit illustrated in Figure 1.  Electromagnetism has many applications, including:

• Electric motors
• Computer printer mechanisms
• Magnetic media write heads (tape recorders and disk drives)

Figure 1. Electromagnet circuit for generating a magnetic field from an electric current.

Parts and materials.

• 6 V battery
• Magnetic compass
• Small permanent magnet
• Spool of 28-gauge magnet wire
• Large bolt, nail, or steel rod
• Electrical tape

Magnet wire is a term for thin-gauge copper wire with enamel insulation instead of rubber or plastic insulation. Its small size and very thin insulation allow for many turns to be wound in a compact coil. Keep in mind that you will need enough magnet wire to wrap hundreds of turns around the bolt, nail, or other rod-shaped steel forms.

Another thing, make sure to select a bolt, nail, or rod that is magnetic. Stainless steel, for example, is non-magnetic and will not function for the purpose of an electromagnet coil! The ideal material for this experiment is soft iron, but any commonly available steel will suffice.

Learning Objectives

• Application of the left-hand rule
• Electromagnet construction

Instructions

Step 1:  Wrap a single layer of electrical tape around the steel bar (or bolt or mail) to protect the wire from abrasion.

Step 2:  Proceed to wrap several hundred turns of wire around the steel bar, making the coil as even as possible. It is okay to overlap wire, and it is okay to wrap in the same style that a fishing reel wraps the line around the spool. The only rule you must follow is that all turns must be wrapped around the bar in the same direction (no reversing from clockwise to counter-clockwise!).

I find that a drill press works as a great tool for coil winding: clamp the rod in the drill’s chuck as if it were a drill bit, then turn the drill motor on at a slow speed and let it do the wrapping! This allows you to feed wire onto the rod in a very steady, even manner.

Step 3:  After you’ve wrapped several hundred turns of wire around the rod, wrap a layer or two of electrical tape over the wire coil to secure the wire in place.

Step 4:  Scrape the enamel insulation off the ends of the coil wires to expose the wire for connection to jumper leads

Step 5: Connect the coil to a battery, as illustrated in Figure 1 and defined in the circuit schematic of Figure 2.

Figure 2.  Schematic diagram of the electromagnet circuit.

Step 6:  When the electric current goes through the coil, it will produce a strong magnetic field with one pole at each end of the rod. This phenomenon is known as electromagnetism. With the electromagnet energized (connected to the battery), use the magnetic compass to identify the north and south poles of the electromagnet. 

Step 7: Place a permanent magnet near one pole and note whether there is an attractive or repulsive force.

Step 8:  Reverse the orientation of the permanent magnet and repeat steps 7 and 8. Note the difference in force caused by changing the polarity of the applied voltage and the direction of the current flow. 

Inductive Kickback

You might notice a significant spark whenever the battery is disconnected from the electromagnet coil, much greater than the spark produced if the battery is short-circuited. This spark results from a high-voltage surge created whenever current is suddenly interrupted through the coil.

The effect is called inductive kickback  and can deliver a small but harmless electric shock. To avoid receiving this shock, do not place your body across the break in the circuit when de-energizing. Use one hand at a time when un-powering the coil, and you’ll be perfectly safe.

Related Content

Learn more about the fundamentals behind this project in the resources below.

• Magnetism and Electromagnetism
• Electromagnetism

Worksheets:

• Basic Electromagnetism and Electromagnetic Induction Worksheet
• Intermediate Electromagnetism and Electromagnetic Induction Worksheet
• Advanced Electromagnetism and Electromagnetic Induction Worksheet
• Textbook Index

Lessons in Electric Circuits

Volumes ».

• Direct Current (DC)
• Alternating Current (AC)
• Semiconductors
• Digital Circuits
• EE Reference

Chapters »

• 1 Introduction to Electronics Projects

Pages »

• 3 DC Circuit Projects
• 4 AC Circuit Projects
• 5 Discrete Semiconductor Circuit Projects
• 6 Analog IC Projects
• 7 Digital IC Projects
• 8 555 Timer Circuit Projects
• 9 Contributor List
• Advanced Textbooks Practical Guide to Radio-Frequency Analysis and Design
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• Silicon Labs Bluetooth Solutions
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• Electromagnetism

Learning Resource Types

Physics ii: electricity and magnetism, experiments.

The desktop experiments were conducted during the class sessions.

Complete set of experiments in one file ( PDF - 3.1 MB )

Experiment 1: Equipotential Lines and Electric Fields ( PDF )

Experiment 2: Faraday Ice Pail ( PDF )

Experiment 3: Magnetic Fields of a Bar Magnet and Helmholtz Coil ( PDF )

Experiment 4: Forces and Torques on Magnetic Dipoles ( PDF )

Experiment 5: Faraday’s Law ( PDF )

Experiment 6: Ohm’s Law, RC and RL Circuits ( PDF )

Experiment 7: Undriven and Driven RLC Circuits ( PDF )

Experiment 8: Undriven and Driven RLC Circuits (cont.) ( PDF )

Experiment 9: Interference and Diffraction ( PDF )

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Science project, electromagnetic induction experiment.

Electricity is carried by current , or the flow of electrons. One useful characteristic of current is that it creates its own magnetic field. This is useful in many types of motors and appliances. Conduct this simple electromagnetic induction experiment to witness this phenomenon for yourself!

Observe how current can create a magnetic field.

What will happen when the battery is connected and the switch is turned on? Will the battery voltage make a difference in the magnetic field?

• Thin copper wire
• Long metal nail
• 12-V lantern battery
• 9-V battery
• Wire cutters
• Toggle switch
• Electrical tape
• Paper clips
• Cut a long length of wire and attached one end to the positive output of the toggle switch.
• Twist the wire at least 50 times around the nail to create a solenoid.
• Once the wire has covered the nail, tape the wire to the negative terminal of the 12V battery.
• Cut a short piece of wire to connect the positive terminal of the battery to the negative terminal of the toggle switch.

• Turn on the switch.
• Bring paper clips close to the nail. What happens? How many paper clips can you pick up?
• Repeat the experiment with the 9V battery.
• Repeat the experiment with the 9V and 12V batteries arranged in series (if you don’t know how to arrange batteries in series, check out this project that explains how).

The current running through the circuit will cause the nail to be magnetic and attract paper clips. The 12V battery will create a stronger magnet than the 9V battery. The series circuit will create a stronger magnet than the individual batteries did.

Electric currents always produce their own magnetic fields. This phenomenon is represented by the right-hand-rule:

If you make the “Thumbs-Up” sign with your hand like this:

The current will flow in the direction the thumb is pointing, and the magnetic field direction will be described by the direction of the fingers. This means when you change the direction of the current, you also change the direction of the magnetic field. Current flows (which means electrons flow) from the negative end of a battery through the wire to the positive end of the battery, which can help you determine what the direction of the magnetic field will be.

When the toggle switch is turned on, the current will flow from the negative terminal of the battery around the circuit to the positive terminal. When the current passes through the nail it induces , or creates, a magnetic field.  The 12V battery produces a larger voltage ; therefore, produces a higher current for a circuit of the same resistance. Larger currents will induce larger (and stronger!) magnetic fields, so the nail will attract more paperclips when using a larger voltage.

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How to Make an Electromagnet - Learn how to use electricity to create a magnet

Posted by Admin / in Energy & Electricity Experiments

A cool science experiment which teaches kids about a magnetic field is to make an electromagnet from scratch. Electromagnet principles and theory was developed by Andre Marie Ampere in 1821. D.F. Arago then invented the first working electromagnet. This invention helped lead Michael Faraday to later invent the electric motor.

Materials Needed

• Magnet wire (about 5-10 feet)
• Metal paper clips
• Battery (D cell or lantern battery) with battery holder or connection wires

EXPERIMENT STEPS

Step 1: First, an iron or steel nail is needed. Do not use a galvanized or aluminum nail or the required magnetic field is not created. Leaving approximately 6" of wire slack, start wrapping the magnet wire around the iron nail.

Step 2: Wrap the wire 25 times around the nail.

Step 3: Attach both ends of the loose wire to the battery. Connect one side to the positive (+) side and the other side to the negative (-) side. Do not leave the wire attached to both battery terminals too long or the battery power will be drained and the wire will get hot.

Step 4: Move the nail near the paper clips.

Step 5: Disconnect one side of the wire from the battery.

Step 6: Wrap the wire another 25 turns around the nail.

Science Learned

The electromagnet proves that a magnetic field and electricity are related. In fact, calculation of electromotive force is very similar to Ohm's law. Remember that Ohm's law is used to calculate the voltage drop across a circuit with a resistor, where v=iR (voltage=current x resistance). To calulcate the electromotive force in a magnetic circuit use the equation F=IN (Force=current x number of turns). The number of turns and the current in the battery both change the amount of magnetic force in an electromagnet.

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