hey guys welcome back i’m nate with the
king of random and today we’re going to
be doing a few small projects that let
us take a look at the relationship
between magnets and electricity growing
up I always love playing with magnets
and over the years the quality of
magnets available has improved
significantly
these silver coloured rare earth magnets
are very powerful and you can do a lot
of really cool things with them the
purpose of today’s video is to show you
a few awesome tricks that you can do
with magnets and electricity using some
easily available supplies here are the
materials we’re going to need for
today’s projects aluminum foil some
double-a and triple-a batteries some
strong rare earth magnets and you want
to make sure that the diameter of the
magnet is at least a little bit larger
than the diameter of your triple-a
battery some coated copper wire I found
this in the jewelry making section at a
craft store this is copper wire that has
a thin layer of enamel paint over it it
can often come in several different
colors some uncoated copper wire
electrical tape and a couple safety pins
now the first thing that we’re going to
do is extremely simple I have here a
stack of these rare earth magnets and a
roll of foil what I’m gonna do is I’m
going to drop the magnets down through
the tube to watch what happens there’s
nothing in this tube it’s completely
empty let’s watch what happens if I just
drop them without the tube they fall
straight down
nothing’s impeding them but if I drop it
through the foil it goes way slower like
that’s not even half the speed it’s
amazing how much slower it goes it’s not
rubbing up against the size of the tube
or anything like that as far as I
understand it here’s what happens when a
magnet moves past metal it creates an
electric field and when electricity is
running through metal it creates a
magnetic field so as the magnet drops
through the metal the metal becomes
charged with electricity and then turns
into an electromagnet itself the
electromagnet that is the foil is then
repelling the magnet that’s falling down
through the tube so it slows it down a
lot and the more powerful the magnet the
more powerful the electric field the
more powerful the electromagnet and the
slower it goes it’s kind of confusing
but I’m going to try and turn it upside
down when it’s almost at the bottom and
just keep it going
yes off you
well nope nope that’s crazy
magnets let’s try the next experiment
for this one we’re going to take a
double-a battery and attach three of our
rare earth magnets to the bottom of it
next we want to take about one foot of
our bare copper wire bend your wire in
half and use a pair of pliers to pinch
where it’s bent
now let’s bend the wire into a sort of a
heart shape you’ll want to touch the
bent portion of your wire to the top of
your battery next we want to bend the
two ends of our wire so that they will
run directly across the middle of the
magnets if you have excess wire sticking
out too far
trim that off you’ll also want to bend
your wires to make sure that the two
ends are parallel to each other at this
point we should be able to make a small
motor by placing the wire on top of the
battery so that the two ends of the wire
are in contact with the magnets the wire
should begin to spin now you can see
that the wire did begin to move but it
quickly destabilized and fell off so
we’re going to add a couple of curves on
the bottom wires to hold it more
securely onto the magnet by bending the
wire around the battery we can create a
sort of groove that will line up with
the magnets and hold our wire in place
[Music]
I’m gonna see if it worked any better
with the magnets on the other side so
the little nib of copper doesn’t have to
balance quite so perfectly on the tip of
the battery well now it just slipped off
the other part of the battery it still
made contact right there on the little
edge so it’s still I’ll finally slow
down alright I keep having my little
copper motor spin so fast that it falls
off and I’m trying to find ways to make
it stay in place so I think what I’m
gonna try and do is I’m going to try and
put a tiny divot in the back of the
battery that will give our little pivot
point something to stay balanced in so
it doesn’t fly off quite so easily I
have a nail with a slightly dull head
and I’m going to try and line that up
with the very center of the back of the
battery and lightly tap it with a hammer
to give it a nice dent I need to be
careful of course that I don’t stab into
the battery I don’t know exactly what
that would do but I’m sure it wouldn’t
be good all right that’s not bad let’s
try that out and see if it’s gonna work
that’s working pretty well oh my gosh
and it’s spinning so fast that it’s
inertia is causing the battery and
magnets to rotate the other direction a
little bit that’s pretty funny
there you have it seems that making a
dent in the battery does a pretty good
job of helping it stay centered and it
doesn’t fall off as easily now let’s
make another kind of motor this one uses
the same principles but is a different
design we’ll need our double-a battery a
couple more magnets two small safety
pins our coded wire and some electrical
tape the coated wire is copper wire that
has a thin layer of protective enamel on
the outside of it the enamel prevents
the copper from making contact with the
battery so electricity can’t flow
through it unless we remove part of the
enamel to start cut off about one foot
of your coated copper wire leaving about
two inches at the end wrap your wire
around your double-a battery several
times wrap the ends of the wire around
the coil a few times to hold it all
together now we want to trim the excess
wires so that they extend about one
centimeter beyond the edge of our
double-a battery
now that our wires trimmed we need to
remove the enamel from one side of the
wires take some fine grit sandpaper and
remove the enamel from one side of the
wire until you can see the copper
beneath it you can see the copper color
that shows that the enamel has been
removed from one side of the other but
it’s still in place on the other side
with the enamel removed from both sides
of the wire our coil is ready and it’s
time to assemble the rest of our motor
with electrical tape attach the safety
pins so they are in contact with the two
ends of the battery you’ll want to be
sure that the loops and the safety pins
are at the same height and lined up with
each other
secure your battery and pins to the
table with the pins pointing straight up
attach one magnet to the battery in
between the two pins feed one wire from
your copper coil through the loop in one
of the pins feed the other wire through
the loop in the other pin let go of your
coil and it might start moving if it
doesn’t take off on its own right away
give it a little nudge
[Music]
for the last experiment we’re gonna need
a little bit more copper wire I have
about 20 feet of it right here and we’re
also going to need a triple-a battery
and four of our rare earth magnets it
can sometimes be tricky to find copper
wire without any sort of coating on it
the copper wire I’m using comes with a
plastic coating around it
I just shave that off and it gives me
some nice exposed copper I’m gonna show
you how I use a razor blade to quickly
remove the plastic coating from this
copper wire now that I’ve removed a thin
strip of the plastic from the whole wire
I can easily peel it off from the rest
next we want a wooden dowel with a
diameter slightly larger than our
magnets what we want to do is tightly
coil all twenty feet of this copper wire
around the dowel now this seems like
it’s going to take a really long time so
I’m gonna try and speed it up using
power tools with the dowel now securely
attached to the Chuck of the drill I can
now start spinning it and wrapping the
wire around it evenly
remove your copper coil from the dowel
and spread it out just a little bit so
there’s a tiny bit of space in between
each loop if there are any spots where
the gap is too large you can usually
just push it back together we now have a
copper coil about one foot long so let’s
take our magnets and attach them to our
battery before you attach two more
magnets to the other end you need to
make sure that they’re oriented
correctly facing one direction the
magnets are attracted to each other and
will pull themselves together but if you
flip them around the magnets will repel
each other in that same orientation with
the magnets repelling each other
attach two more magnets to the bottom of
the battery at this point if you fit the
battery and magnets into the copper coil
something pretty fun should happen check
that out the battery and magnets pull
themselves through the copper coil like
a little self-driving electric train
let’s do that again mm-hmm
there goes flies right through the whole
coil we made it around the curve
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
okay so what is happening as our little
train goes through its little tunnel
when the magnets make contact with the
copper coil electricity is running
through them and through the copper as
we know electricity running through the
metal wire turns it into a magnet
because we have our magnets facing
opposite directions the magnet of the
coil is pulling on one side and pushing
on the other running it through like a
train it goes all on its own that’s so
fun I could probably just play with this
thing all day so cool so many neat
things you can do with magnets and
electricity a quick recap a powerful
magnet drop through a tube of aluminum
foil will fall very slowly because it’s
movement creates an electromagnet which
slows it down this small type of motor
was made by just bending a piece of
copper so it touched the top of the
battery and the magnets stuck to the
bottom of it it had some problems
destabilizing until we flip the battery
upside down and put a small divot in the
bottom of it another type of small motor
can be made by running electricity
through a tightly wound copper coil
rotating over a magnet a couple of
magnets stuck to a battery in opposite
directions will run through a copper
coil like a miniature electric train
there you have it now you know a few
small simple tricks you can do with
magnets and electricity at home thank
you for joining us for this project and
we will see you in the next one
talk to you then do things with them
next we want to get
hey guys quick reminder that king of
random t-shirts are available once again
just go ahead and click the link at the
top of the description and it’ll take
you to where you can get one today
[Music]
king of random and today we’re going to
be doing a few small projects that let
us take a look at the relationship
between magnets and electricity growing
up I always love playing with magnets
and over the years the quality of
magnets available has improved
significantly
these silver coloured rare earth magnets
are very powerful and you can do a lot
of really cool things with them the
purpose of today’s video is to show you
a few awesome tricks that you can do
with magnets and electricity using some
easily available supplies here are the
materials we’re going to need for
today’s projects aluminum foil some
double-a and triple-a batteries some
strong rare earth magnets and you want
to make sure that the diameter of the
magnet is at least a little bit larger
than the diameter of your triple-a
battery some coated copper wire I found
this in the jewelry making section at a
craft store this is copper wire that has
a thin layer of enamel paint over it it
can often come in several different
colors some uncoated copper wire
electrical tape and a couple safety pins
now the first thing that we’re going to
do is extremely simple I have here a
stack of these rare earth magnets and a
roll of foil what I’m gonna do is I’m
going to drop the magnets down through
the tube to watch what happens there’s
nothing in this tube it’s completely
empty let’s watch what happens if I just
drop them without the tube they fall
straight down
nothing’s impeding them but if I drop it
through the foil it goes way slower like
that’s not even half the speed it’s
amazing how much slower it goes it’s not
rubbing up against the size of the tube
or anything like that as far as I
understand it here’s what happens when a
magnet moves past metal it creates an
electric field and when electricity is
running through metal it creates a
magnetic field so as the magnet drops
through the metal the metal becomes
charged with electricity and then turns
into an electromagnet itself the
electromagnet that is the foil is then
repelling the magnet that’s falling down
through the tube so it slows it down a
lot and the more powerful the magnet the
more powerful the electric field the
more powerful the electromagnet and the
slower it goes it’s kind of confusing
but I’m going to try and turn it upside
down when it’s almost at the bottom and
just keep it going
yes off you
well nope nope that’s crazy
magnets let’s try the next experiment
for this one we’re going to take a
double-a battery and attach three of our
rare earth magnets to the bottom of it
next we want to take about one foot of
our bare copper wire bend your wire in
half and use a pair of pliers to pinch
where it’s bent
now let’s bend the wire into a sort of a
heart shape you’ll want to touch the
bent portion of your wire to the top of
your battery next we want to bend the
two ends of our wire so that they will
run directly across the middle of the
magnets if you have excess wire sticking
out too far
trim that off you’ll also want to bend
your wires to make sure that the two
ends are parallel to each other at this
point we should be able to make a small
motor by placing the wire on top of the
battery so that the two ends of the wire
are in contact with the magnets the wire
should begin to spin now you can see
that the wire did begin to move but it
quickly destabilized and fell off so
we’re going to add a couple of curves on
the bottom wires to hold it more
securely onto the magnet by bending the
wire around the battery we can create a
sort of groove that will line up with
the magnets and hold our wire in place
[Music]
I’m gonna see if it worked any better
with the magnets on the other side so
the little nib of copper doesn’t have to
balance quite so perfectly on the tip of
the battery well now it just slipped off
the other part of the battery it still
made contact right there on the little
edge so it’s still I’ll finally slow
down alright I keep having my little
copper motor spin so fast that it falls
off and I’m trying to find ways to make
it stay in place so I think what I’m
gonna try and do is I’m going to try and
put a tiny divot in the back of the
battery that will give our little pivot
point something to stay balanced in so
it doesn’t fly off quite so easily I
have a nail with a slightly dull head
and I’m going to try and line that up
with the very center of the back of the
battery and lightly tap it with a hammer
to give it a nice dent I need to be
careful of course that I don’t stab into
the battery I don’t know exactly what
that would do but I’m sure it wouldn’t
be good all right that’s not bad let’s
try that out and see if it’s gonna work
that’s working pretty well oh my gosh
and it’s spinning so fast that it’s
inertia is causing the battery and
magnets to rotate the other direction a
little bit that’s pretty funny
there you have it seems that making a
dent in the battery does a pretty good
job of helping it stay centered and it
doesn’t fall off as easily now let’s
make another kind of motor this one uses
the same principles but is a different
design we’ll need our double-a battery a
couple more magnets two small safety
pins our coded wire and some electrical
tape the coated wire is copper wire that
has a thin layer of protective enamel on
the outside of it the enamel prevents
the copper from making contact with the
battery so electricity can’t flow
through it unless we remove part of the
enamel to start cut off about one foot
of your coated copper wire leaving about
two inches at the end wrap your wire
around your double-a battery several
times wrap the ends of the wire around
the coil a few times to hold it all
together now we want to trim the excess
wires so that they extend about one
centimeter beyond the edge of our
double-a battery
now that our wires trimmed we need to
remove the enamel from one side of the
wires take some fine grit sandpaper and
remove the enamel from one side of the
wire until you can see the copper
beneath it you can see the copper color
that shows that the enamel has been
removed from one side of the other but
it’s still in place on the other side
with the enamel removed from both sides
of the wire our coil is ready and it’s
time to assemble the rest of our motor
with electrical tape attach the safety
pins so they are in contact with the two
ends of the battery you’ll want to be
sure that the loops and the safety pins
are at the same height and lined up with
each other
secure your battery and pins to the
table with the pins pointing straight up
attach one magnet to the battery in
between the two pins feed one wire from
your copper coil through the loop in one
of the pins feed the other wire through
the loop in the other pin let go of your
coil and it might start moving if it
doesn’t take off on its own right away
give it a little nudge
[Music]
for the last experiment we’re gonna need
a little bit more copper wire I have
about 20 feet of it right here and we’re
also going to need a triple-a battery
and four of our rare earth magnets it
can sometimes be tricky to find copper
wire without any sort of coating on it
the copper wire I’m using comes with a
plastic coating around it
I just shave that off and it gives me
some nice exposed copper I’m gonna show
you how I use a razor blade to quickly
remove the plastic coating from this
copper wire now that I’ve removed a thin
strip of the plastic from the whole wire
I can easily peel it off from the rest
next we want a wooden dowel with a
diameter slightly larger than our
magnets what we want to do is tightly
coil all twenty feet of this copper wire
around the dowel now this seems like
it’s going to take a really long time so
I’m gonna try and speed it up using
power tools with the dowel now securely
attached to the Chuck of the drill I can
now start spinning it and wrapping the
wire around it evenly
remove your copper coil from the dowel
and spread it out just a little bit so
there’s a tiny bit of space in between
each loop if there are any spots where
the gap is too large you can usually
just push it back together we now have a
copper coil about one foot long so let’s
take our magnets and attach them to our
battery before you attach two more
magnets to the other end you need to
make sure that they’re oriented
correctly facing one direction the
magnets are attracted to each other and
will pull themselves together but if you
flip them around the magnets will repel
each other in that same orientation with
the magnets repelling each other
attach two more magnets to the bottom of
the battery at this point if you fit the
battery and magnets into the copper coil
something pretty fun should happen check
that out the battery and magnets pull
themselves through the copper coil like
a little self-driving electric train
let’s do that again mm-hmm
there goes flies right through the whole
coil we made it around the curve
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
okay so what is happening as our little
train goes through its little tunnel
when the magnets make contact with the
copper coil electricity is running
through them and through the copper as
we know electricity running through the
metal wire turns it into a magnet
because we have our magnets facing
opposite directions the magnet of the
coil is pulling on one side and pushing
on the other running it through like a
train it goes all on its own that’s so
fun I could probably just play with this
thing all day so cool so many neat
things you can do with magnets and
electricity a quick recap a powerful
magnet drop through a tube of aluminum
foil will fall very slowly because it’s
movement creates an electromagnet which
slows it down this small type of motor
was made by just bending a piece of
copper so it touched the top of the
battery and the magnets stuck to the
bottom of it it had some problems
destabilizing until we flip the battery
upside down and put a small divot in the
bottom of it another type of small motor
can be made by running electricity
through a tightly wound copper coil
rotating over a magnet a couple of
magnets stuck to a battery in opposite
directions will run through a copper
coil like a miniature electric train
there you have it now you know a few
small simple tricks you can do with
magnets and electricity at home thank
you for joining us for this project and
we will see you in the next one
talk to you then do things with them
next we want to get
hey guys quick reminder that king of
random t-shirts are available once again
just go ahead and click the link at the
top of the description and it’ll take
you to where you can get one today
[Music]
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