When you create a circuit through the wire, the moving electrons also create a magnetic field around the wire. This field is reacting to the magnet on the bottom to push the wire around.
Wow….That is _NOT_ an unexplained phenomenon, that is, you know, how an electric motor works. The battery puts a current thought the wire, which is attracted to one pole of the magnet, it swings around but it goes too far and then gets repelled by the other side. Having trouble grasping that very simple concept? http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/motor1.htm
it’s simple actually….a moving charge (current) in a magnetic field has a force imposed upon it (i think it is the lorrentz force) orthoganal to both the field and the current direction…you can also make a rail gun this way…=)
Electrical current creates a magnetic field (left hand rule). My guess is that the magnetic field created by the wire repels the magnet’s field. They’re trying to push each other away, but the wire is wrapped around the battery so it just goes in circles. I’d be curious to see if turning the magnet over changes the direction of the rotation. Cool experiment. Thanks.
January 19th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
It’s great, but hardly unexplained! It spins because of the magnetic field created by the electricity in the wire.
January 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
it works because theres uh nigger in there spinnin it
January 20th, 2008 at 12:04 am
When you create a circuit through the wire, the moving electrons also create a magnetic field around the wire. This field is reacting to the magnet on the bottom to push the wire around.
January 20th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Wow….That is _NOT_ an unexplained phenomenon, that is, you know, how an electric motor works. The battery puts a current thought the wire, which is attracted to one pole of the magnet, it swings around but it goes too far and then gets repelled by the other side. Having trouble grasping that very simple concept? http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/motor1.htm
January 20th, 2008 at 6:50 am
it’s simple actually….a moving charge (current) in a magnetic field has a force imposed upon it (i think it is the lorrentz force) orthoganal to both the field and the current direction…you can also make a rail gun this way…=)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Railgun-1.svg
January 20th, 2008 at 6:51 am
sorry lorentz force…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_force
fun project!
January 20th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Electrical current creates a magnetic field (left hand rule). My guess is that the magnetic field created by the wire repels the magnet’s field. They’re trying to push each other away, but the wire is wrapped around the battery so it just goes in circles. I’d be curious to see if turning the magnet over changes the direction of the rotation. Cool experiment. Thanks.
January 21st, 2008 at 2:04 am
ripped off of an older science blog. The other guy got it to spin faster too.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:19 am
Very simply it’s the flow of electrons through the magnets field causing the force which makes the wire rotate.