VII_14.

1
SCIENCE ACTIVITY SHEET

Activity-1: To make an electromagnet.

Material Provided: A large iron nail, about 3 inch long, thin coated copper
wire, D size battery, few paper clips, a switch.
Here is what you do……
1.Leaving about 8 inches of wire loose at one end, wrap the rest of the wire
around the nail. Keep another about 8 inches loose at the other end.
2.Keep the overlapping of wire at minimum.
3.Rub the ends of the wire with sand paper to remove the coating of the wire.

4.Attach one end of the wire to the positive terminal of battery and other end
of wire to negative terminal of battery through a switch, as shown in picture.
5.Handle carefully as the wire may get hot.
6.Bring paper clips near to this magnet.
7.Use judiciously as the battery will get drained quickly.
Observations: Paper clips get stuck to the tip of the iron nail.
Questions:

1. Does the number of times you wrap the wire around the nail affect the strength of the
magnet?
Ans. Yes, the number of times we wrap the wire around the nail affect the strength of the magnet.
More the number of times we wrap the wire , more will be the strength of the electromagnet.

2. Does the thickness or length of the nail affect the electromagnet’s strength?
Ans. Yes, thickness and length of the nail affect the strength of the electromagnet.
More the thickness of the nail ,more will be the strength of the electromagnet.
More the length of the nail, more will be the strength of the electromagnet.

3. Does the thickness of the wire affect the power of the electromagnet?
Ans. Yes, thickness of the wire affect the power of the electromagnet.
More the thickness ,less will be the number of turns of wire , less will be the strength of the electromagnet.
 Applications of electromagnets

Speaker Electric Bell

Activity-2: To study magnetic effect of electric current.
Material Provided: An empty matchbox, 3 feet long thin coated copper wire, battery &
compass.

Here is what you do……

1. Take the cardboard tray from inside the matchbox and place the compass inside it.
2. Wrap the copper wire around the cardboard tray. Complete the
circuit
with a battery and switch as shown in picture.
3.Note the direction in which the compass needle is
pointing.
4. Observe the compass needle when the circuit is switched
ON.
5. Switch ON and switch OFF the circuit multiple times and
observe how the deflection in the compass changes.

Observations: Compass needle points in N-S direction.

The needle deflects when we switch ON the current and again deflects when we
switch off the current
Questions:
1.If you replace the battery with a set of batteries, what happens to
the deflection of the compass needle?
Ans. If we replace the battery with a set of batteries, deflection of the
compass needle increases because of increase in amount of current.

2.If you increase the length of copper wire, what happens to the
deflection?
Ans. If we increase the length of copper wire ,deflection increases.

3.If you use an aluminum wire instead of copper, do you still

observe the same deflection in the compass needle?
Ans. If we use an aluminum wire instead of copper ,we will observe the same
deflection in the compass needle
Hans Christian Oersted carried out experiments,
discovering that electric current produces a circular magnetic effect around
it.
Activity-3: To study heating effect of electric current.
Material Provided: 2 nails, a piece of thick cardboard, a switch, 10 cm long nichrome wire, few regular wires.

Here is what you do……

1. Fix 2 nails on the thick card board approx. 10 cm apart

2. Wrap the nichrome wire through both these nails as shown in picture.
3. Complete the circuit with a battery and switch.
4. Switch on and touch the nichrome wire after few seconds of switching on the circuit.
5. Switch OFF the circuit and touch the wire again after few seconds.

Observations: The nichrome wire becomes hot when current is passed through it for few seconds but comes back to original
temperature when current stops flowing through it.

Applications:
What happens to the temperature of the nichrome wire when …

1. you replace the battery with a set of batteries?

Ans. Temperature of the nichrome wire increases

2. you increase the length of nichrome wire?

Ans. Temperature of the nichrome wire increases

3. you use an iron wire instead of nichrome wire?

Ans. Temperature of the iron wire does not increase as quickly as that
of nichrome wire.