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Build your own Electromagnet!

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Try making this special kind of magnet at home from things you may already have around the house.

You will need: A large iron nail (about 3 inches) About 3 feet of THIN COATED copper wire A fresh D size battery Some paper clips What to do: 1. Leave about 8 inches of wire loose at one end and wrap most of the rest of the wire around the nail. Try not to overlap the wires. 2. Cut the wire (if needed) so that there is about another 8 inches loose at the other end too. It should look like this: 3. Now remove about an inch of the plastic coating from both ends of the wire and attach the one wire to one end of a battery and the other wire to the other end of the battery. (It is best to tape the wires to the battery - be careful though, the wire could get very hot!)

Now you have an ELECTROMAGNET! Put the point of the nail near a few paper clips and it should pick them up! Most magnets, like the ones on many refrigerators, cannot be turned off, they are called permanent magnets. Magnets like the one you made that can be turned on and off, are called ELECTROMAGNETS. They run on electricity and are only magnetic when the electricity is flowing. The electricity flowing through the wire arranges the molecules in the nail so that they are attracted to certain metals. NEVER get the wires of the electromagnet near at household outlet! Be safe-have fun!
-Science Bob

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions: 1. Does the number of turns of wire around the nail affect the magnet's power? 2. What electromagnet design holds the most paperclips? 3. Can the power of the magnet be controlled? 4. Does the size of the nail affect the power of the magnet? 5. Does the material that the nail is made of affect the power of the magnet? See if you can come up with more ELECTROMAGNET experiments!