Although it is not widely used today, the homo-polar motor has an incredible elegance and simplicity to it,. making it an ideal electric motor for a first home project. It is the simplest kind of electric motor you can build and can be put together in just a few minutes at very little cost. Make one before you try more difficult and sophisticated styles of electric motor.
Instructions
1. Put a neodymium magnet on the head of an iron nail. The magnet should be small and disk-shaped, and the nail should be free of any corrosion or coating.
2. Allow the magnetic force to attach the nail to the battery. Hold the nail so that the tip is facing up and hold one terminal of a cell battery (AA, C, and D batteries work well) against it. The nail should dangle from the battery.
3. Take a small piece of copper wire and tape it to the other terminal of the battery. You can either use bare wire or you can strip off a bit of enamel from each end to get a clean connection. Make sure the copper is in contact with the battery.
4. Put on some safety glasses. Once this motor gets going, it can spin at up to 10,000 rpm, so you want to be prepared if it flies off in the middle of things.
5. Touch the side of the magnet with the free end of the wire. It should start spinning immediately.
6. Control the speed of the electric motor by touching and removing the end of the wire in contact with the magnet. It takes a while to climb up to full speed, so you can easily keep it going at a more reasonable rate.
Tags: electric motor, contact with, nail should