Electromagnet

10K185

Intro: Electromagnet

Materials:
   1 battery(6 volt)
   2 Alligator Clips
   50 paper clips
    1 rubber band
    1 nail
    Copper wire

This instructable is fairly simple.  You will make an electromagnet using the materials listed above. 

STEP 1: Step 1

Coil Copper around nail. The tighter the copper is coiled the better it will work.  Leave a few inches of copper on the two ends of the nail.

STEP 2: Step 2

Connect the two alligator clips to the two terminals on your battery.  Then attach the two ends to the exposed copper wire. Negative and positive do not matter.   

STEP 3: Step 3

Allow the battery to charge for a few minutes. 

STEP 4: Step 4

Get your 50 paper clips and use your rubber band to tie them all together.  As soon as you have done this used your charged electromagnet to pick up the 50 paper clips.

4 Comments

Nice....I do have one question does wrapping more layers of copper wires makes it more magnetic?and does it matter if the copper wires cross each other?

Yes the magnetomotive force is proportional to the number of turns of wire, therefore the more turns the more magnetized the nail. And crossing does not really matter, the tighter they are wound the better, what matters most in this regard is the direction of current flow so as long as the wire is consistently wrapped in the same direction you should be fine!

what kind of nail is that