Can you believe it’s almost 2023? I caught myself the other day referring to the New Year as 2013! 😳 (That decade went by fast!)
I’ve always been fascinated by this simple spinning battery motor and I thought that the New Year would be a great time to try it out. I was happy when the whole family got involved from my daughter fashioning 2023 to my husband perfecting the coil to close the electrical circuit. This is a great activity to teach about how to make an electric motor and how to turn electrical energy into mechanical energy.
What you need: copper wire, small magnets, AA battery, wire cutters.
How to do it: First, we fashioned the 2023 as a separate piece that would attach to the top of the motor.
Then we bent the coil to form one end of the circuit to touch the top of the battery and the other end of the coil to fit around the magnets. The coils should wrap around the magnets but not touch them. (Honestly, this was the hardest part.)
Next place the magnets on the anode (flat end) of the battery and the tip of the coil on the cathode (button end). We hooked our 2023 on the top so that it balanced without tipping over the battery.
What’s the science: A closed electrical circuit is created by placing the tip of the coil at the top of the battery and the bottom of the coil within the magnetic field of the magnets causing an electrical current to flow through the coil. A force is created by this electrical current that then spins the coil around the battery. **Warning: The battery, magnets, and coils can get warm so use caution when creating this motor with kiddos.**
As we go on our 9th year at She Loves Science (almost a decade!), I couldn’t help but hum a little “to everything turn turn turn” while creating this spinning New Year science experiment.
Our family continues to learn to enjoy every season of life as each one seems to keep passing by faster year after year… We hope you have an amazing New Year celebrating with your family and friends…💕
Leave a Reply