2014

Daniella Jacques
Presented to Mme Neena Parbhakar
1/20/2014
Motors
Purpose:
The Motor Principle, states that, When a current-carrying conductor in an external magnetic field
perpendicular to the conductor, the conductor experiences a force perpendicular to itself and to the
external magnetic field. Thus constructing a simple Direct Current (DC) motor allowed for a study of
this principal amongst other electromagnetism concepts, to be conducted. Particularly if the first few
models do not function as initially planned.

Materials (asked for & used initially):
Aluminum foil
Large paper clips
Paper/plastic/foam cup
Masking tape
Magnets (two or more)
Scissors
Copper wire (bare or coated)
Sandpaper
Battery (D or C cell)
Permanent marker

Procedure (used to build the functional DC motor):

Building the Stand:
1) Take a paper clip and bend it open, so that it is straight, and repeat with the other.
2) Take one end of a now straight paper clip and wrap it once or twice around the pencil to
produce a loop with post; repeat with the other paper clip.
3) Bend the post end of the looped paper clip, at two places, creating trapezoid; repeat with other
paper clip.
4) Tape the bottom of both paper clips to the chosen base (table, wood piece, CD case, book etc),
the distance between the non-looped ends must be of the length of the battery.
5) Place the magnets between the looped-ends of the paper clips.

Making the coil:
1) Cut a length of about 2 feet of the 16 gage coated copper wire.
2) Wrap the wire around the battery to create a coil, when finished remove the coil from the a
3) Take the ends of the wire and wrap them around the coil a few times to secure the coil. This
should resemble a loop of coated wire with the two ends sticking out from either side.
4) Use the sandpaper to remove the coating completely from one end; and remove all, but one
side of coating from the second end. You should end up with a loop with one un-coated end and
the other partially coated.
5) Gently balance the coil between two fingers and see if it spins easily, if not, adjust it.

Putting it together:
1) Place the ends of the coil in the cradles created by the paper clips.
2) If need be, adjust the height of paper clips and/or magnets to ensure that the coil spins just
above the top of the magnets.
3) Connect the battery by placing it between the two free ends of the paper clips.
Materials (used in the end):
2 large paper clips
2 to 4 pieces of masking tape
2 or more magnets
Scissors
16 gage coated copper wire
Sandpaper
Battery (D or C cell)
Pencil
A base (CD case, piece of
wood, table etc)

Observations/Difficulties:
After the construction of the motor, following the initial instructions and materials, the motor did not
function. There would be times where my colleagues and I would succeed in our rotor oscillating, but
never managed a complete turn. Our troubleshooting consisted of numerous different ideas. We simply
began with ensuring if the coil was well balanced. Since if it werent accurately balanced then it would
not spin properly on its axis.
When we had finished verifying and confident that the rotor was well balanced our minds went to the
source of energy. Using a voltmeter to inspect if the battery had enough charge to power the DC motor.
When the voltmeter proved that the battery was nearly full charge; we moved on to the conductors.
Following the initial model and instructions the conductors were aluminum foil and paper clips. Since
aluminum is known as a non-conductive material, we removed the aluminum extensions and connected
directly the battery to the paper clips. After many tests, this proved to not work. The rotor would
occasionally oscillate, but no more than that. Therefore we decided to change the material of the posts.
We created the new posts out of the 20 gage wire when we had built the coil. The results showed that
the original posts functioned better. Therefore we returned to the paper clips.
The next source on the list was the magnetic field. We had several different magnets in terms of
strength. We changed the strength of the magnetic field little by little, stronger and stronger or weaker
and weaker. We mixed the magnets; trying to see if there we could find the right strength combination.
The best were able to achieve was the rotor oscillating.
Since there was so much we can do with the magnets, we moved on to the rotor itself. We tried
numerous different things. One of the first things we attempted was adding more loops to the rotor,
wondering if increasing the current would be beneficial. The added weight seemed to not aid the rotor
in spinning. We settled for in between the original number of windings and the number of windings we
had tried now. This seem to have no impact, upon the rotor. We then tried to change the wire itself. We
went from a 20 gage non coated wire to a 16 gage coated wire. It seemed that removing the coating
with sandpaper was more precise than adding the needed coating with permanent marker. This 16 gage
wire was the change that needed to be done.
Questions:

Part 1: Fill in the blanks.

1) Motors are devices that convert (electrical) energy into (mechanical) energy.
2) The basic principle behind the simple DC motor is that the wires that carry (current) experience
(forces) when placed in regions of space that have (magnetic field)
3) Only sections of wire that carry current in a direction (? perpendicular) to a magnetic field
experiences forces.
4) The speed at which the rotor of a motor spins depends on three important factors: (current),
(wire), and (field).
5) The direction that the rotor of a motor spins depends on the (right hand rule for the motor
principle) rule.

Part 2: Multiple Choice.

1) Which of the following changes to a motor might decrease the speed at which it spins?
A) Using two magnets instead of one
B) Using two batteries instead of one
C) Using a rotor with only six loops instead of twelve

2) When using your hand to determine the direction that the motor spins, your thumb always
points in the direction of
a) The current
b) The magnetic field
c) The force experienced by the wire

3) Consider the motor shown below (on the sheet given). The magnetic field is oriented vertically
so that it is directed into the magnet. The current runes through the loop in a clockwise manner.
What will the direction of the force on the bottom section of the rotor be?
a) Into the plane of the paper
b) Out of the plane of the paper
c) No force will be experienced by the bottom section

4) Consider the motor in the previous question. What will happen to the direction that the motor
spins if the bar magnet is flipped so that the direction of the magnetic field is reversed AND the
battery leads are switched so that the direction of the current is reversed?
a) The motor will continue to spin in its initial direction
b) The motor will reverse the direction that it spins.

5) Two students build a DC motor during class one day. When stripping the rotor, the students
dont follow the directions exactly. instead they strip both straight sections completely - top,
bottom, and sides. What will happen when they try to run their motor?
a) The rotor will spin, but more slowly than it would have if they had stripped correctly.
b) The rotor will remain stationary, not moving at all.
c) The rotor will oscillate back and forth but never make a complete turn.


Part 3: Extension Questions.

1) Give three examples of motors that you see working in the classroom/school.
- Audio speakers
- Fire alarm
- Being able to watch a DVD on a laptop spinning the DVD (p.567 in textbook) or laptop fans

2) Give three examples of motors that you see working outside the classroom.
- Cars (motor and door locking and unlocking mechanisms), Trains
- Power tools
- Toaster

3) Engineers often find that while increasing the value of a variable may be beneficial to a desired
outcome, a critical point is often reached where increasing the value of that variable any further
actually works against them. With the simple DC motor, the number of loops in the rotor acts as
such a variable.

a) Explain why increasing the number of loops is initially beneficial.

The strength of the magnetic field is proportional to the number of coils; looking at the basic
equation N x I, where represents the Magnetic Field, N the number of windings, and I as the
current. The magnetism in the electromagnet is a result from the total/initial amount of current flowing
around the source of iron. Therefore increasing the number of loops increases the magnetic strength
then the amount of current must have also increased. An example could be if there was an
electromagnet with a total/initial current of 2 Amps, then every new loop adds 2 Amps to the
total/initial current. Thus if there were ten coils then current would be of 20 Amps (2A x 10N = 20A). By
adding more coils we are essentially reusing the same current repeatedly resulting in a stronger
magnetic field and current.

b) Explain why there is a limit to increasing the number of loops. In other words, why is it that
at some point, increasing the number of loops does not increase the speed at which the
motor spins?

Increasing the number of windings increases the current and the magnetic field, but it also increases the
resistance. The increase in resistance will affect the power of the current in reducing by a little. This
resistance also generates more heat. If an electromagnet were to have too many coils that the
resistance overcomes the current than this method of increasing the number of loops would not be
beneficial. There needs to be a balance between these forces for an electromagnet to function properly;
and this is how the strongest electromagnets fundamentally work. They have good balance between the
resistance and having the correct number of coils to create a powerful current induced magnet.

4) A fellow student suggests making a square rotor instead of a circular one. She proposes that
using a similarly sized square rotor will actually allow the motor to spin faster. Do you agree with
her? Why or why not?

I would not agree, the square rotor would not run faster than the circular rotor. I believe that the
shape of a square will have consequences on the magnetic field of the electromagnet. I think that it
will either prevent the magnetic field of the electromagnet to form or will form one, but the
direction of magnetic field lines will be problematic. Their direction would be consequently
interfering with the external magnetic field rather than collectively functioning the way we would
like it to.

5) The directions for building the motor require one straight section of rotor to be stripped
completely and the other straight section to be stripped on the top section only. A fellow
student theorizes that in fact, both straight sections need to be stripped on the top only.

a) Is the student correct? Would the motor work if stripped as he suggests?
The student is incorrect for stripping all the coating would prevent the motor from properly spinning,
thus properly working.

b) If not, why not?
If the wire were completely stripped then the coil would simply oscillate. The current would be flowing
in one direction and after the loop has completed a 180
0
turn what was previously the bottom section is
now the top section; and vice versa. If the current was initially clockwise would be counter clockwise.
With the change in direction the coil would retrace its 180
0
turn, and the currents would again change
directions. Therefore, this repeating change in directions results in the rotor oscillating, preventing it
from completing a full turn. The purpose of keeping a section of the wire coated is to cut off the current
for a split-second, every time the loop has turned 180
0
, that the inertia will push the coil pas the 180
0

mark; completing a full turn. This cycle should continue, providing you with a working motor.

c) If so, why do you suppose the directions require one side to be stripped completely?
Ive chosen b), and therefore I do not have an answer for this question.

Bibliography:
Beauvais, Kristy. "The Simple DC Motor: A teacher's Guide." . N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan 2014.
<http://web.mit.edu/cmse/educational/motor_lp_kristy.pdf>.
. Physical Science. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014. <http://edquestscience.com/pdf/PS-EP-3notes.pdf>.
"CH. 10: 10.2 Electromagnets." . N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014.
<http://www.cpo.com/ipcres/pdfs/unit3/Ch10Sec2.pdf>.