A machine that converts electrical energy known governing concepts of electricity and
1
large safety pins, sandpaper (for smoothening IV. Results and Discussion
out the edges of the safety pins), scissors, long As noted, the principal difference between a
nose pliers, and mechanical pliers. galvanometer and a motor is that for the latter,
the current is made to change direction every
time the coil makes a half rotation.
(1)
Equation 1 defines the magnitude of a force
present on a circular loop, where F is the
magnitude of force present on a current loop, q
is the amount of charge, v is the speed and B is
the strength of magnetic field.
Figure 1. Coiling the wire on the battery
For our DC motor set-up, the sum of the
forces present is zero. This is because each of
The wire was coiled fifteen times around the
the forces present on the opposite sides of the
battery and secured to prevent relapse.
wire cancels out thus leaving no net force on
(Winding the coil more than fifteen times on
the system.
the battery will affect the magnitude of the
In theory, a magnetic dipole moment, or
magnetic field strength.) Excess wire was
simply a magnetic moment, causes the rotation
placed and stripped at the start and end points
on a current loop once exposed to a magnetic
of the coil to serve as rod or shaft to suspend
field.
the coil on the support pillar provided by the
safety pins. (An alternative set-up replaces the (2)
wire with a small circular magnet.) Once the Equation 2 expresses the magnetic moment
current was established, the circuit was as the product of the current (I) and the area
exposed to the magnetic field. (A).
The concept of a magnetic dipole moment is
essential in understanding why a current loop
rotates once exposed to a magnetic field. A
magnetic dipole moment quantifies the
contribution of the system's internal
magnetism to the external dipolar magnetic
field produced by the system.
(3)
Equation 3 describes the torque induced on a
Figure 2
An Alternative Improvised DC Motor Set-up circular loop as the magnetic dipole moment
with a Magnet placed on the battery
(greek letter mu) cross the magnetic field
strength (B).
2
For this experiment, rotating the wire fifteen and the coil decreases. This experiment had
times over the battery’s central body produced also confirmed that by inducing a ‘flick’ or
enough dipole moment strength to induce a net initial movement on the DC set-up, a
torque once the magnetic field was introduced. continuous rotation will be generated by the
The initial results, however, produced a coil motor. This is because the momentum of the
that only oscillates back and forth. This is coil neglects the inappropriate direction of the
because for an electric motor to undergo magnetic moment that it would have to pass
continuous rotation, a commutator is needed. through.
The magnetic moment was changing
directions and thus the fixed magnetic field VI. References
causes the coil to turn back and forth. This is [1] Dobkowska, M., Gupta, A., Majcher, A.,
the nature of a moving magnetic moment Wojewoda, K., “Simple Models of An Electric
when exposed to a fixed magnetic field. Motor”. August 6, 2008
A member of the group touched the set-up <http://astronomy2009.saao.ac.za/fileadmin/fil
and gave it an initial movement/rotation es/education/astrocd/resources/GHOU/silnicze
(“flick”). When this initial “flick” (that would k_v1_eng.pdf>
give momentum to the coil) is exposed to the [2] Hewitt, P.G., Conceptual Physics, 9th ed.,
magnetic field, the relatively quick changing Chapter 5, Addison – Wesley / Prentice Hall
of the magnetic moment allows the magnetic USA (2004)
field to induce a constant rotation since the [3] Young, H. & Freedman, R. University
coil already have an induced momentum. Physics,11th ed., Chapter 27, Addison Wesley,
San Francisco California, (2004).
V. Conclusion
The group noticed that the rate of rotation
increases as the distance between the magnet