fleming’s left-hand rule

25 February

Homopolar Motor 2

16 Electromagnetism, Demonstrations

This video demonstrates how a simple homopolar motor is made using a screw and a small neodymium magnet. The simplest possible motor one can make, it can be used to teach concepts at various levels. For lower secondary students, they can learn about conversion of energy forms while upper secondary students can learn about magnetic forces and Fleming’s left-hand rule.

Materials

  1. 10 cm wire
  2. 1.5 V battery
  3. iron screw
  4. neodymium magnet

Procedure

  1. Attach the neodymium magnet to the head of the screw.
  2. Attach the tip of the screw to one end of the battery such that the screw hangs below the battery. The screw will remain attached to the battery as the magnetic force from the neodymium holds them together.
  3. Hold one end of the wire on the top terminal of the battery and allow the other end of the wire to touch the side of the screw or the magnet. Watch the screw spin.

(Link: Alternative design for the homopolar motor)

16 February

Electromagnetism Lecture

16 Electromagnetism, Blog

I enjoy lecturing on topics like Superposition and Electromagnetism in the GCE A-level syllabus as they lend themselves well to the use of fun demonstrations that I can perform in front of the audience.

One of the recent demonstrations that I did was to demonstrate the measurement of the magnetic force acting on a wire and to show that the force can be inverted when the current is reversed. The magnitude of the force can be shown to be consistent with the relationship $$F = BIl \sin \theta$$, where $B$ is the magnetic flux density, $I$ is the current within the wire, $l$ is the length of the wire and $\theta$ is the angle between the wire and the magnetic field. This can be illustrated by independently varying one of the 4 variables and observing the change in force.

The setup is also a good for a demonstration to illustrate Fleming’s Left-Hand Rule.

Meanwhile, here’s a video I made to show what I did:

16 February

Measuring the Force on a Current-Carrying Conductor

16 Electromagnetism, Demonstrations

The force acting on a current-carrying conductor is given by $$F =BIl sin \theta$$ where B is the magnetic flux density, I is the current, l is the length of the wire and $\theta$ is the angle between the current and the magnetic field. It can be measured in directly using a weighing scale as described below:

Materials

  1. An electronic weighing scale
  2. Two neodymium magnets
  3. Plasticine
  4. Batteries
  5. 40 cm long wire

Procedure

  1. Place some plasticine between two neodymium magnets to hold them together with each magnet having a different pole facing up (north for one and south for the other).
  2. Place the magnets on the weighing scale.
  3. Connect the 40 cm wire across the opposite terminals of the batteries.
  4. Hold the wire horizontally and place it between the two magnets so that the current runs perpendicularly to the magnetic field lines.
  5. Using Fleming’s left-hand rule, one can predict whether the measured weight will increase or decrease. If the magnetic force acting on the wire is upward, by Newton’s 3rd law, the reaction force acting on the magnets is downward and the measured weight will increase, and vice versa.
  6. Flipping the current around in the opposite direction will yield opposite results.