How can I make it work?Ī: The electromagnet might not be working for a number of reasons, but most of them boil down to an incomplete circuit. The wire will also look a little bit thinner. Q: How do I know when the wire is stripped?Ī: The wire is stripped when the reddish color of the enamel insulation is gone, revealing bright, shiny, golden-colored copper. You do not need to start over or make a whole new coil, as long as you have enough stripped wire for the alligator clip to hold. You can strip the insulation off the remaining part of the wire tail. If you did break the magnet wire "tail" of your coil while stripping it, do not worry. Try practicing on a separate piece of wire to get a feel for how much pressure to apply with the sandpaper. You do not need to squeeze the sandpaper sandwich very tightly in order to remove the enamel insulation that coats the magnet wire. How can I stop this?Ī: Try using less pressure. Q: The magnet wire breaks when I try stripping it with sandpaper. Second, when you reach the threads, you can start wrapping the coil in the other direction, away from the threads and on top of the first set of turns, creating a second layer to your coil. First, you can ignore the threads and keep on wrapping, even though it will be harder to keep the turns lined up because the wire will tend to lie in the threads of the bolt. For larger coils, you have a couple of options. The 50- and 100-turn coils should fit completely on the non-threaded section of the bolt. Should I worry about this?Ī: We suggest starting your coil as close to the top of the bolt as possible so that you have most of your coil on the non-threaded part of the bolt. Q: The threads on the iron bolts make it hard to keep the turns lined up. A little patience goes a long way in getting a nice coil. If you do this after each turn, your wire turns should line up nicely. Fourth, try using your fingernail to slide each turn of the coil up against the previous turn, while pulling the wire tight with your other hand. Third, you may also find it helpful to use your fingers to hold the wire tight against the iron core as you wrap the coil. That way, you can hold the wire taut while you turn the core. This will keep the coil from coming apart.) Second, you may find it helpful to hold the iron core in one hand and the wire in the other. (Once you have finished making the turns on your coil, it is also important to tape the ending point of the coil firmly to the iron core. First, it is important to have the starting point of your coil taped firmly in place to the iron core. But because a neatly wrapped coil is important to the quality of your experiment, it is worth taking the time to wrap your coils well. Any ideas for keeping my turns tight and lined up nicely?Ī: Wrapping the coils is probably the trickiest part of this project, so do not feel bad if you have some trouble with this. Q: I am having a hard time keeping my coil neat. Note that this method does not work if your coil has more than one layer of wire or if there are spaces between turns. This can be a helpful "reality check," especially if you completely lose count of how many turns you have made in a coil. So, if you wrap your coil very neatly, you can estimate how many turns are in your coil by measuring how much of the iron core is covered by the coil. That means that 100 turns of that wire cover 1 inch of the iron core (0.01 inches x 100 = 1 inch), if the turns are right next to each other and do not overlap. For example, the wire in the Science Buddies kit is 30 gauge wire and has a 0.01 inch diameter. Once you know the diameter of the wire, you can calculate how much of the iron core should be covered by a certain number of coils. Second, if you know the gauge of your magnet wire, you can look up the diameter of the wire in a table, like this one. It is useful to have a helper track how many turns you have made. If you get distracted, you can unwind to the nearest multiple of ten, instead of unwinding all the way back to the beginning. Second, each time you add ten turns to your coil, draw a short line on the core next to the wire, and write down how many turns you have so far. Count one turn each time you pass the marker line. First, draw a line straight down the iron core with a permanent marker. Do you have any suggestions for tracking that better?Ī: If keeping track of how many turns of the magnet wire you have made around the iron core becomes difficult, here are two suggestions. Q: I am having trouble keeping track of how many turns are in my coil. If you are having trouble with the procedure, you may find assistance in the answers below. The following FAQ contains frequently asked questions and answers about the Strength of an Electromagnet project.
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