Below is a picture of an electromagnet made by wrapping a wire around an iron nail and connecting it to a battery. The electromagnet can be turned off by disconnecting it from the battery. A teacher helps students perform 2 experiments to test the variables that affect the electromagnet’s magnetic strength.
Experiment 1: Number of wire turns
- In this experiment, the teacher guides the students to wrap the wire around the iron nail multiple times, varying the number of turns.
- The number of turns is a variable in this experiment, and it will be tested to see how it affects the magnetic strength of the electromagnet.
- Students will connect the wire to the battery and observe the strength of the magnetic field created by the electromagnet.
- They will record their observations in a table, noting the number of wire turns and the corresponding magnetic strength.
Experiment 2: Battery voltage
- For this experiment, the teacher instructs the students to keep the number of wire turns constant while varying the battery voltage.
- The battery voltage is the variable being tested to examine its impact on the magnetic strength of the electromagnet.
- Students will connect the wire to different batteries with varying voltages and observe the resulting magnetic strength.
- They will record their observations in a table, noting the battery voltage and the corresponding magnetic strength.
By conducting these experiments and recording their observations, students will be able to analyze and compare the data to determine the relationship between the variables (number of wire turns and battery voltage) and the magnetic strength of the electromagnet. They can draw conclusions and potentially identify any patterns or trends that emerge from the data.