Monday, March 14, 2011

Blog 10!: Jello Box Generator

As soon as Mrs. Chen introduced electromagnetic induction in class I couldn't wait to write my blog.  I finally had a perfect idea for it!  Immediately I thought of my jello box generator that I built in elementary school.

  

For once it was a good thing that I kept one of my old science fair projects.  To make this "generator" I cut a square in a normal jello box so that you can see the magnet spinning inside.  A nail going through the box holds the magnet in place and connects into the hand crank which turns the magnet.  And wrapped around the whole box is a coil of wire.



When the magnet spins, the angle of the of the magnetic field with respect to the the coil is constantly changing, causing a voltage to be induced in the wire, therefore, causing an induced current.  The light flickers because as the magnet is flipped 180 degrees as it turns, the poles of the magnet reverse, making the current also flip back and forth, making the current of the circuit an alternating current.