Motor Blog

      The battery supplies voltage to the motor. From this voltage, it also allows current to run through the motor. The two paperclips on either end act as stands, however they must both be touching the ends of the battery so that current can flow through them. The magnet that sits on top of the battery creates the magnetic field that contributes to the wire actually spinning. The actual copper wire loop is the most important part. Once wrapped in a circular loop, it sits on top of the paperclip rests and will spin (assuming it works).
      We scraped the entire tail of one end of the copper loop and just the bottom half of the other tail. We did this because when the loop flips over, the current will be opposite from the force, so this was necessary in order to make it continue spinning.
      The motor actually turns for several different reasons. First, the magnetic field created by the magnet puts a force on the copper loop. Second, the current in the wire will flow where the wire is scraped, so the way in which we scraped the wire is important. Last, the direction of the force will change as the loop flips, so that is also why we scraped only the bottom half on one tail of the wire.

This motor could be used for several different purposes. Mainly, it could be used for education as a demonstration in school, such as we did. It shows that you can make a motor with simple household items. However, this could also be used to impress your friends, or to show off to your parents. Lastly, it could be used for simple entertainment. If you are easily entertained, you could have a blast watching the motor spin for hours and hours.