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Simple Electric Motor

Building a simple electric motor with magnet wire, a D cell battery, two safety pins, some nail polish, and a rubber band.

wmotormouth.pdf947 KB

minimotor2.AVI2 MB

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wmotormouth.pdf947 KB

minimotor2.AVI2 MB

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22 comments

Apr 16, 2012. 5:01 PMtyu #1! says:

i love your idea lol!

Apr 10, 2012. 6:30 AMtyu #1! says:

I kind of like it

Apr 24, 2010. 5:24 PMgreymatter21 says:

not to rain on ur parade or anything, but adding nail polish may keep tha safety pins from connecting to tha wire. but its pretty cool anyway :)

Sep 12, 2011. 11:20 AMpapalevies says:

Yes that is the point. You add nail polish to half the conductor so the circuit opens for every half rotation and the electric field collapses. That way the coil doesn't slow down from the magnet. It would slow down because as it rotates it's orientation changes and the opposing poles start distancing while the similar poles start approaching each other resulting in an opposing force.

Sep 14, 2011. 11:49 AMgreymatter21 says:

oh.

Mar 10, 2009. 2:39 AMtaninmurshid says:

nice, i am searching this type of site.

Dec 9, 2005. 10:02 AMCMPalmer says:

Another (older) version that I've had on my web page for over 10 years:

http://fly.hiwaay.net/~palmer/motor.html

Jun 28, 2008. 11:23 PMTraductor says:

Is it possible to use alternating current to make it work? If not, how do you make the simplest AC motor? Regards.

Jun 11, 2008. 1:24 PMscience explorer says:

where do I get the axle it could easily work?

Apr 18, 2008. 7:48 AMkhush says:

so simple

Feb 12, 2008. 1:06 PMbob the builder #1 says:

Have you tried it because it doesn't work?

Dec 17, 2007. 2:54 PMingenuity101 says:

any idea on what kind of power it can make? I am trying to build a small car-like thing and wondering if this would work. obviously I would have to shrink the battery and the screw possibly, but I think it is possible. any clues?

Nov 29, 2006. 5:19 AMscienctist says:

oh the girl

Jul 26, 2007. 1:44 AMgirrrrrrr2 says:

i need to find one like that... a geek... who is good looking...lol...

Oct 24, 2006. 4:56 AMscienctist says:

yeh i know this thing very simple.who has posted this instructables is just a beginer i challenge!!

Sep 24, 2006. 6:53 PM

zachninme says:

People, just read the PDF!

Jul 8, 2006. 2:31 PMguitarplayer128 says:

words were very hard 2 read then when u zoom in it gets all blurry

Apr 5, 2006. 6:55 AMbanjokid says:

i had to change my id

Mar 23, 2006. 12:18 PMbanjo boy123 says:

i am going to enter this progect in a seience fair words to small i think too

Mar 1, 2006. 7:18 PMboxmonkey says:

This is a pretty elegant way to make a simple electric motor. I made an electric motor ages ago as a science project and I used a 9volt battery and had to improvise a brush system. Pretty overkill for something that just has to spin. The nail polish eliminates the brush issue which cuts the power in half, but it much simpler.

Dec 31, 2005. 1:42 PMredsoashley says:

I CAN'T EVEN SEE THE WORDS!!!!!

Feb 3, 2006. 11:07 PMQiQi says:

Just download the pdf file, you can zoom in