We recently learned how to motors work and the first thing we learned was that in order for a motor work there are two necessary things, a current carrying wire and a magnet. The wire will feel a force from the magnet's magnetic field and cause a torque, thus spinning, without wither one of those the motor would not work! Now with that, the battery will give the wire a current the two paperclips were "arms" for the wire to rest on and they helped create a circuit from the high energy side to the low. Lastly a strong rubber band to hold the whole machine together.
I think the most important part of this mini lab was scraping the copper wire. This was the case because if you scraped the wrong side of the wire the machine probably wouldn't work. You must scrap on the same part of both sides in order for the wire to spin. This is because the force will be the same on both sides therefore pushing both sides in the same direction.
The copper wire turns because of a few reasons. Firstly the wire when current is running through it is perpendicular to the magnet's magnetic field so it will be repelled from the start. If there was no current in the wire the wire would just sit there because there must be moving charges in it to cause the repulsion with the magnet's magnetic field. So the current in the image above went to the left and the magnetic field was pushing up so the wire was being pushed towards us.
Here is my own lil motor! I was so proud of her!
My motor could be used as a small fan for gerbils, all they would have to do is attach little fan blades on either side of the wire and whaa bam, the gerbils get to stay cool in the hot summer sun!
So, all you need to make a wonderful lil motor is a magnet, two paper clips, a wire, a rubber band, and a battery. Now with all the information you know have about motors go out and make your own motor!
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