Lucy Mogan

March 19, 2018

Physics/Engineering

Electromagnetic Experiment

Objective/Purpose:​ How do electrical currents influence magnetic fields?

- How will the thickness of an insulated copper wire affect the magnetic field created by an
electromagnet?

Scope/Background: ​An electromagnet is a metal core wrapped in a coil that creates a

temporary magnet when a current runs through it. When a current flows through the coils, by a
battery, or some other power source, it creates a magnetic field. As long as the current is going
through the electromagnet, it will act like a magnet. We can change the force of the magnet by
changing the amount of power put into the device. When all the coils are wrapped the same
way, it creates a stronger force for the electromagnet.

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/266854/is-the-south-pole-of-an-electromagnet-alw
ays-at-the-end-where-current-is-drawn-i

Hypothesis:​ If a 32, 18, and 14 gauge insulated copper wire is wrapped around a 3.5 in steel
“sinker” nail 60 times, then the number of staples picked up by the electromagnet will increase
as the wire gets thicker.

Procedure:​ First, start with the 32 gauge insulated copper wire and shave off the coating on
both ends. Wrap the wire around a 3.5 inch steel sinker nail 60 times leaving the same length of
wire on each side of the coil. Attach both ends of the copper wire to a Kirkland AA battery with
your fingers. Hold the ends of the wire tightly against the battery and then use the head of the
nail as a magnet to pick up as many staples as possible. Record the amount of staples picked
up by the electromagnet. If any part of the electromagnet gets hot, take the wire off of the ends
of the battery and let everything cool down for a while. Repeat all these steps with the 18 gauge
thick brown wire and 14 gauge thick red wire.
Materials-
● 32 gauge insulated copper wire
● 18 gauge insulated copper wire
● 14 gauge insulated copper wire
● 1 kirkland AA battery
● 3.5 inch steel sinker nail
● Staples

Data/Observation:

The amount of staples picked up by electromagnet with different gauge wires wrapped around
nail 60 times:
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
32 gauge wire 8 9 6
18 gauge wire 10 5 6
14 gauge wire 35 46 47

Analysis/Discussion:

This graph shows the amount of staples picked up by an electromagnet wrapped in three
different types of insulated copper wire 60 times. My hypothesis was correct because as the
wire got bigger, the amount of paper clips picked up by the electromagnet enlarged. The 18
gauge wire didn’t get that much higher than the 32 gauge because there might have been an
error. The wire was really old and we had to wrap it in electrical tape to cover some of the spots
where the insulator was worn away. Also the cover on the wire was different then the other
ones. I could have done better by making sure all the wires were in good condition so the data
would be accurate. While we were conducting this experiment, I wondered if the number of
wraps of wire would contribute to the strength of the electromagnet also. And if the wire got
bigger, could the staples be picked up from farther away?

The Force of the Electromagnet with Different Wires on the Single Staples:
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
32 gauge wire 0.002 0.002 0.0012
18 gauge wire 0.002 0.0002 0.0012
14 gauge wire 0.007 0.009 0.009

F=ma 10 staples=0.2g or 0.0002kg

F=(0.00016kg) (9.8m/s^2)
F=0.00156
F=0.002

I had to use the equation F=ma to find the force of the electromagnet. I found the mass by
taking the mass for 10 staples and dividing it by specific numbers to get the right mass. For a, I
used the acceleration due to gravity which is always 9.8m/s^2.

This graph is displaying the amount of force the different wires on the electromagnet had on the
staples. It shows that the bigger the wire got, the more force the electromagnet had. This is
expected because when the wire was bigger, the less resistance it had on the current. In other
words, the current wasn’t being slowed down as much. I had to use the equation F=ma to find
the force of the electromagnet. I rounded some of the data to make it easier to read and
understand. But mostly, the bigger wire had more force on the staples.

Conclusion: ​In this experiment, we found that the thicker or bigger the wire gets in an
electromagnet, the amount of staples able to be picked up increases. Our experiment was to
test the effects of different gauges of wire on an electromagnet when wrapped 60 times around
a steel sinker nail. We tried to keep everything the same except the wire size. We took the
electromagnet and picked up as many single staples as we could while it was still connected to
the battery. For the 32 gauge wire the most that was picked up was 9 staples and the most the
18 gauge wire picked up was 10 staples. This shows as as the wire size increased, the amount
of paper clips also increased. When the wire is bigger, there is less resistance for the current to
go through so the current gets stronger and faster. Also, the 14 gauge wire picked up 47 staples
at the most. The wire was a lot bigger than the other ones, which means less resistance for the
current. The lower gauge wires in electromagnets can pick up more staples than a higher
gauge.