I am at present doing a project for a science fair. In the project I have to make a magnet levitate over a electrically charged flat copper track or road. Now I have all the stuff I need ecept it's not working. When I put a 12 volt charge through the copper track and when I went to check if it was magnetised it did not show any magnetic characteristics (by the way the if has to be a fairly strong magnet). Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong?
2006-12-14 01:01:55 · 2 answers · asked by mikerushe 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
I think we are having a misconception on a theory of electromagnetism. Think of a so called right-hand rule (see ref #1). Curl the fingers of your right hand in the direction of a current flow and the thumb will point to the direction of the magnetic force.
It is all about Ampere-Turns (AT) (see ref #2) the more AT you can 'pack' the stronger the force of magnetic attraction or repulsion there will be. See reference provided. It will make you ‘dangerous’ enough in accomplishing what you are planning to do.
2006-12-14 01:53:30 · answer #1 · answered by Edward 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you are simply putting a current though a single track, you are not going to get much of a field for the kind of current you'd be passing through it plus the field will be in circles around the track which will not give you any lift. It will be very very difficult to get magnetic levitation.
2006-12-14 09:32:53 · answer #2 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋