Jonathan Li
Ka Shun Li
Shane McKenna
Using several 1.5V batteries (D), wires, and a nail, we created an electromagnet. For this
experiment, we had to investigate whether the current of the circuit and/or the amount of coils
around the nail had anything to do with the strength of the electromagnet we created. The
following is how we made our electromagnet and what we did in order to test these factors.
1. We took a long piece of wire and coiled it around an 8 inch nail.
2. We then took some scissors and stripped the red coating on the ends of the wire, so the
current can run though the wire.
3. After that, we took some batteries and attached alligator clips to the ends of the batteries,
and made a circuit, connecting the two ends of the coiled nail together.
4. We now have an electromagnet, and to experiment, we tried to see how many paper clips
can be picked up using the electromagnetic nail.
Doing this, we can see how strong that electromagnet is. To test how different variables
affect the electromagnet, we added batteries and/or removed some or added more coils onto the
nail. To assess how strong the electromagnet was, the amount of paperclips it was able to pick up
determined how strong it was. We have collected this data:
Number of Coils(with 1.5V)
Number of Clips
Voltage (with 30 coils)
Number of Clips
30
3
1.5
2
60
11
3
25
90
30
Problems Encountered
 Didn’t have an ammeter, therefore current could not be measured.
o Solved by using a set amount of batteries, as it is directly related to the current.
 Too many clips were being attracted to nail.
o We stopped coiling the nail at 90, and didn’t use more than two batteries.
 Figuring how to measure strength of electromagnet.
o We set the amount of clips attracted as to how strong the electromagnet was.
 Batteries seemed too weak.
o Found a battery that worked well and used more than one battery.
From this, it shows that the number of coils does affect how strong the electromagnet is.
From this, it shows that the higher the voltage, which means the higher the current, the stronger
the electromagnet will be.
Conclusion:
We have discovered that both variables, voltage (current) and the number of coils, do
affect how strong the electromagnet is. They both had a direct affect to the electromagnet. In
other words the bigger the variable, the stronger the electromagnet will be. Therefore the
equation we came up with is: M=(CA)/L where M is the strength of the magnet, C is the number
of coils, A is the current, and L is the length of the nail.