Motor Blog

I just finished creating my own working motor in physics class, which was very exciting! The components used to make up the motor were two paperclips, a magnet, copper wire, and a battery. The battery is used to supply electrical current to the paperclips, which not only act as holders for the motor loop (copper wire), but the paperclips also allow the current to flow into the copper wire. The magnet of course supplies the system with a magnetic field, and lastly the copper wire is the motor loop that spins and makes the motor functional. All of these parts must combine to get the system to work. The current from the battery flows to the paperclips, which then allow it to enter the armature of the motor loop at the scraped parts. Which were scraped down to the silvery inside at specific places. They were scraped in a place where the loop would be in a vertical position on the paperclips. This is so the direction of the magnetic field and the current would line up and cause forces on each side that would cause it to spin. Using the x, y, and z coordinates to predict the direction the force would be in. I had to make sure I scraped them in a way that wouldn't prevent the spin and would allow it to make a circular motion. Once the motor loop is electrically charged and is inside the magnetic field created by the magnetic, we learned that this causes motion. Motors like the one I created are used in every day things, such as fans and automobile motors.
Here is a link to my working motor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgRNQh-S1Y4