Blog 7: Building an Electric Motor

               On Wednesday, Mr. Chung gave an interesting assignment to the class: We were to create our own electric motors. He asked us to bring our own materials if we could.

Materials:

·         paper clips

·         cork

·         pop can

·         sandpaper

·         thumbtacks

·         stick (axel)

·         nails

·         pins (commutator)

·         scissors

Mr. Chung provided us with most of the materials, including a hammer. He gave us short instructions and hints throughout the lab, such as how the coils should be in parallel to the nails, not perpendicular. If you were to coil them perpendicular

This lab was very effective, for me anyway, because it was a hands-on activity. I got much more out of it then I would have from listening to how it works.

Eddie and I completed our electric motor and presented it to Mr. Chung. He hooked the two pop can sheets (brushes) with 2 wires, which were connected to a large battery. He switched the power source on and our cork started turning very quickly, only slowing down once every few seconds.

On Friday, we took our motor for another spin so we could film it, but it didn’t work as well as the day before. It still worked though…

Here is our video of the motor: