It was first noticed 150 years ago that when some small compasses are placed near a wire

carrying an electric current, the needles lie in the direction of

rings around the wire. As soon as the current is turned off the needles move back to their original north-south positions. The electric current makes a force
field around the wire in the same way that a magnet would do.

Electromagnets
Electromagnet is a temporary magnet whose magnetism is produced by an electric
current. A single wire that has current passing through, has a magnetic force around
it. It becomes a temporary magnet as long as there is current flowing through it. By
holding the wire with your right hand and the thumb showing the direction of the
current, the direction of the magnetic force is as shown by the curving of your
fingers. See diagram below.
A coil of wire called a solenoid can make a much stronger magnetic
field than a single piece of wire. It behaves like a bar magnet, the pole
of the magnetic field can be determined by the right-hand grip rule.
Imagine gripping the current-carrying solenoid with your right hand
so that your fingers curling round the solenoid in the direction of the
current. Your thumb then points towards the north pole of the
solenoid.

The poles of the current-carrying solenoid can also be determined by looking at the The strength of the magnetic field increases:
direction of the current from each end of the solenoid. If the direction of the current
is clockwise, the viewed end of the solenoid is the south pole. If the direction of the 1. when the current is increased,
current is anticlockwise, the viewed end of the solenoid is the north pole. 2. if the number of turns of the solenoid is increased,
3. if an soft iron rod/core is placed inside the solenoid,
4. the turns of the wire are pushed closer so that the solenoid is
shorter (when N & S poles are closer, magnetic strength is
stronger)

Make an electromagnet
You can make your own electromagnet with some wire, a battery and an iron nail. Wind the wire around the nail, keeping the coils very close together. The
more coils there are, the stronger the magnet will be. Twist the ends of the wire around the two terminals of the battery to make the electricity from the
battery flow around the wire, the nail becomes a magnet. You can test with some paper clips to see how strong it is. By undoing one of the terminals of the
battery the nail stops being a magnet again.

Another way of making magnets

A magnet can sometimes make something else into a magnet without even touching it. Its lines of force stretch out across space and make the "magnet-
molecules" in the object line up. This is called magnetic induction. Only temporary magnets are made by "induction".

Applications of Electromagnet

The Electromagnetic Lifting Machine The Electric Bell

The Electromagnetic Relay The Telephone Earpiece

The Circuit Breaker

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