The Effect of Core Size and Wire Size on Electromagnet Strength

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective is to find out the effect of core size and wire size on electromagnet strength. Methods/Materials A 20cm length of wire was wrapped 17 times around a nail. The ends of the wire were stripped to attach to a battery. One wire end was attached to the positive side of a battery, the other wire end was attached to the negative side of the battery. The nail was placed into a pile of 100 paperclips for 2 seconds, and lifted so that the number of attached paperclips could be counted. This was repeated 100 times with the thick wire (12 gauge) and then with a thin wire (14 gauge). Next the core size was tested by wrapping a 12 gauge wire, 17 times around a thick nail and connected to a battery as stated above. The nail was placed into a pile of 100 paperclips for 2 seconds, and lifted so that the number of paperclips could be counted. This procedure was repeated with a thin nail. Results The electromagnet with the thick wire (12 gauge) consistently held more paperclips than the electromagnet with the thin wire (14 gauge). The difference however was not a significant one. The electromagnet with the thick core cosistently held more paperclips than the electromagnet with the thin core. For this portion of the experiment there was a significant difference. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that the electromagnet with the thick core is stronger than the electromagnet with the thin core. Wire size did not make a significant difference in electromagnet strength.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2010 Electronics & Electromagnetics · Entry J0909

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Physics and Astronomy projects
• CSEF Physics and Astronomy projects
• Every CSEF 2010 project