Entry # 4 Graph

Electromagnet

Question:

Does the number of times the wire is wrapped around the nail in an electromagnet affect the magnet strength?

 Hypothesis:

I think that the more you wrapped the wire around the nail the stronger the magnet will be.

 Procedure:

First I got a nail, wire, a D battery, and paper clips. I made an electromagnet by wrapping the wire around the nail and putting the end of the wire on each end of the battery. I tested the electromagnet by first wrapping the wire half of the length of the nail, then wrapped the full length of the nail, and then another half of the length of the nail. I did this until I wrapped the length of the nail fully three times. I tested the strength of the electromagnet by picking up paper clips and counting them for each test.

Data:

The length of the nail wrapped	.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3
# of paper clips picked up	13	18	22	24	26	29

 Data graph:

Finding: This graph shows that when the number of wraps increases along the length of the nail the number of paper clips picked up increases as well. Thus, this data shows that the number of wraps around the nail increases the magnetic strength of the electromagnet.

 Conclusion:

From the data that I collected I found that the electromagnet’s strength increased as the number of wraps increased. The data supported my hypothesis.

 Remaining Questions:

• Will the strength of the electromagnets cap after a certain number of wraps around the nail?
• Does the amount of the nail showing affect the number of paper clips the electromagnet can pick up?
• Does the length of the wire that is not wrapped around the electromagnet affect the magnet strength?
• Does the size of the battery affect the strength of the electromagnet?