How To Make An Electromagnet

Step 1: How To Make An Electromagnet

Magnets are one of the most fun things to experiment with. With a few materials you can easily make your own electromagnet.

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Step 2: Materials

List of materials:

Insulated Copper wire - thin insulation is best, I used crocodile clips and enamelled wired, which is also called magnet wire
A Battery
An Iron Nail - as used in my 'How To Copper Coat An Iron Nail' video see that here.

(Optional Materials)

Iron filings
Paper clips

Step 3: Coil The Wire

Simply running current through a wire produces a weak magnetic field. But this is usually too weak to give us visable results. By coiling the wire closely we amplify the magnetic influence which gives us visable results. The closer these windings are the better the electromagnet will be.

Step 4: Making the magnet stronger

To make our electromagnet stronger we can give it an iron core. This will boost the power of our electromagnet and give us better results. This is as simple as winding the copper enamelled wire around an iron nail and securing it with sticky tape. When you connect it to a battery you will a have a stronger electromagnet. There are some simple things we can do to make our electromagnets stronger.

To make electromagnets stronger we must do the following:

Add more windings
Give it an iron core
Increase the current flowing through the wire

Step 5: Make Your Own Iron Filings

You can make your own iron filings by filing down a spare iron nail. Don’t forget to put a piece of paper down to catch the filings as they drop and help you see them.

One piece of safety advice, don’t leave your battery in a position where it or the leads attached to it could come into contact with the iron filings. As they are very small, if electricity runs through them they will get super hot and burn.

Here is our video in case you missed it.