Electromagnets

Garrison Gribbin Advantage academy 8B

Table of Contents Introduction Research Materials Procedures Discussion Data Table Conclusion Acknowledgments Biography/References page 3 page 3 page 4 page 4 page 4 pages 4-5 page 6 page 6 page 6

Introduction My question that Ill answer in this experiment is What makes the magnet stronger? Current or voltage? Research Plan

An electro magnet is mainly a wire coiled around so mething metal with an electric current passing through it so that it generates a magnetic field. W ithout doing anything to the power supply, the strength of the electromagnet is based on how many coils you have around your me tal object. In 1820, a Danish scienti st Hans Christian found out that electric currents make magnetism. But W illiam Sturgeon invented the actual electromagnet. His first model was mainly a horseshoe with 18 turns of coiled wire around it with electricity going through it. The magne t weighed 7 ounces and could lift 9 pounds. Eventually, he made one with thousands of turns and could lift over two thousand pounds. This magnet wa s what was used for an electromagnet crane for moving scrap metal.

Materials

y 8 DC batteries y y y y y long metal nail (around 6 inches) long wire for coil silver switch and 2 red buttons wooden backboard and 50 bb s

y Two alligator clips

Procedures: First, went to Radioshack and got alligator clips, batteries, a silver switch, and buttons. My dad already had a wooden backboard and a nail. I had the electromagnet put together on a wooden backboard. To start Ill put a cup of bbs under the nail and have it set on twice the voltage and then Ill put it on twice the current flow and do the same thing.

Discussion The electromagnet idea for my project came from my dad a while back and I never did his idea so I decided to do it this year. It was kind of hard to count all the little bbs. The problem about there being different numbers of bbs was that I had the batteries for a little while and the power of the magnet changed as I used it as I collected data. An other

problem was that when I tried to pick up the bbs it would drop them eventually and went everywhere, but I did it . Data Table

Conclusion After I tested the magnet, I saw that it picked up more bbs than voltage. Really voltage and current is only setting up power differently. Voltage actually is only capacity of power and current is the amount of flow through the wires. So yeah I proved my hypothesis. Acknowledgments Id like to thank my dad for coming up with this science topic, for helping me put the thing together, and being awesome . Bibliography/References
The Strength of an Electromagnet, Last edit date: 2009-04-17 21:27:00, Andrew Olson, Ph.D.,
Science Buddies, 2/23/2010, www.sciencebuddies.org

Electromagnet, was last modified on 21 February 2010 at 22:15, (N/A),2/23/2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnet

Sturgeon, W. (1825). "Improved Electro Magnetic Apparatus". Trans. Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures, & Commerce (London) 43: 3752. cited in Miller, T.J.E (2001). Electronic Control of Switched Reluctance Machines. Newnes. pp. 7. ISBN 0750650737. http://books.google.com/books?id=E8VroIWyjB8C&pg=PA7&&sig=ACfU3U3feYwmT RJczKRJNQp026dDAwLJNA. "Joseph Henry's contributions to the electromagnet and the electric motor" http://siarchives.si.edu/history/jhp/joseph21.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-27