Create your own magnet

EQUIPMENTS:

1. A nail or a piece of iron metal

2. A battery of 6 volt

3. A three feet insulated wire (The insulation should be fairly thin)

4. A wire stripper

5. Some paper clips or small piece of iron metals

6. A bar magnet

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Expose both end of the insulated wire about .5 to 1 inch using the wire strippers.

2. Coil the wire around the length of the iron nail and leave about six to seven inches hanging off each end of the nail.

3. Now attach the end of the exposed wire to the terminals of the 6 volt battery.

4. Now try using the nail to pick some paper clips.

5. Hold one end of the nail close to the north pole of the bar magnet. Again hold the same end of the nail close to the south pole of the bar magnet.

RESULT:

1. When the nail is put in the coil of the wire and then connected to the 6 volt battery it should be able to pick up many paper clips at one time.

2. One of the poles of the bar magnet should attract one end of the nail while another pole of the bar magnet should repel the same end of the nail.

EXPLANATION:

The flow of the electrons through the wire creates electricity. This then includes a magnetic field. By coiling the wire around the nail, the magnetic field is concentrated into one area. The metal of the nail contains weakly magnetic particles. Before the current is applied to the coiled wire the magnetic particles of the nail are arranged randomly. So there is a very small and weak net magnetic field in the nail. When the current is turned on the magnetic particles are aligned and a strong magnet is produced. If the wires of the battery are disconnected from the battery the nail lose its magnetic ability.

Magnetic domain of a magnetic material

MORE EXPLANATIONS:

There are many small regions of magnetism inside a magnetic material called domains. The domains all point out the same direction. Because of that they cancel out each others effects. So there can be seen no net magnetism or a very weak net magnetism in the magnetic material. When electricity is applied to that magnetic material all the domains inside the magnetic material are aligned in the same direction and hence they don’t cancel out each others effects. And that creates a fairly strong magnetic force in the magnetic material to which the electricity was applied.

MORE EXPERIMENTS FOR YOU:

1. Use different kinds of metals in this experiment and compare them with each other.

2. Use different number of coils around the magnetic material and compare the magnetic force.

3. Do the same experiment using wood and plastic instead of metal. See if you can find any weak magnetic force then!