Motors: A Magnetic Movement

Today, Maya, Kayla, and I made motors with a straw, a battery, wire, safety pins, and straight pins. The first activity was to wrap 5 feet of wire around a 6 inch drinking straw. At the ends of the wire, we stripped of the coating, and attached that with tape to the positive and negative sides of the battery.



I stuck a pin at the edge of the straw, while the straw was horizontal. Because the straw with the wire wrapped around it is a potential magnet, and once it was attached to the batter, it was an electromagnet. That is why the straight pin when held next to the straw, it was attracted to the middle, where the magnetic field was strongest because that is where the wire was wrapped tightest.


Our second experiment was to make a motor that could turn a coil of wire around and around. Our first step was to wind the wire in a circle about an inch in diameter. Second, we attached the two ends of the wire to the inside of safety pins, which were open and attached with scotch tape to the positive and negative sides of the battery. Taped on top of the battery was a strong, but powerful magnet.

The coil was able to spin because as we the wire to the battery, we made an electromagnet. The electrons were moving inside the coil, each attracted to the magnet, then spinning.



This is a picture of our motor. The battery is right on top of the wire clippers, and the safety pins are on either side of the battery. The magnet is taped to the top of the battery.