Electric magnet?

Question

To make an electric magnet they say you need a battery, wire and a nail but can a person make one without the battery? Like from a power cord of some sort? This is vert important - its for school.

Answer 1

Do not play with a power cord! No matter how important. Just get yourself a battery.

You really need a DC power supply. The AC will chatter. Also a DC power supply using a transformer will provide you with isolation from the main circuit just in case you 'come' a bit short.

Check the reference below and please be careful.

Answer 2

If you try to use a power cord then you will end up getting seriously hurt so don't do it.

Yes, you have to have a battery as the way an electromagnet works is the electricity running through the nail creates a magnetic field around it which turns it into a magnet. If there was no electricity there would be no magnetic field and therefore no electromagnet.

Answer 3

Is it dangerous to use an electrical power cord, yes it is. That said, it is still possible to do it all very safely. What I would recommend is to go to an industrial supply store and buy a solenoid valve that uses 120 Vac. Take the valve completely apart, just keep the electromagnet coil intact. Basically you are going to unscrew the valve body from the coil. Then you need to carefully take the plunger rod out of the coil. When this is done you should have the coil, completely intact with it's two wires, and nothing else except for the electrical housing around the device if it would not come off easily. There you have your electromagnet. Then you need to attach a power cord to the two wires coming out of the coil. Take one lead from the power cord and attach it to 1 of the power cord leads. Twist the wires together, and tape them up so the no wire is showing, and there is at least 3 layers of tape over the wire. The tape should extend over the wire insulation at least 1 inch, each way. Remember, use black electrical tape, I recommend Scotch 88, it is available at Lowe's Lumber Warehouse. Connect the other coil wire and the other power cord lead in the same way. Do not connect the wires to each other, or the power leads to each other. If you do, when you first plug it in to a wall outlet you'll have a nice fireball to deal with. It'll be short lived, but spectacular.
If you choose to go it alone without the valve magnet coil, then you'll need at least 100 feet of #20 magnet wire. a piece of soft iron, or steel, cover that with tape before you begin, and wind the coils as evenly, and as smoothly as you can. When you are done, you should have at least 4 inches of free wire to attach the power supply to, and tape up the rest with tape as I mentioned. The more coils you have, the stronger the magnet will be. IF you can get to the other end of a spool of wire without damaging the wire insulation, a spool of wire would make a great electromagnet since it is already wound on a coil form. A wire spool with no wire on it would also make a nice coil form. When all is said and done, just be sure there is no uninsulated wire any where, and that the power source goes from one lead of it to one lead of the coil, through the whole coil, out the other end of the coil and attaches to the other side of the power cord. You should be alright. Word of caution, you have a potential weapon. DO NOT put anything magnetic in the open center of the coil, and plug the coil in. The magnetic object will shoot out of it like a rocket. It could be you that it embeds itself in, and it will hurt.

Answer 4

Don't play with power cords, 120 volts and electromagnets. If you're a student in school, playing with that kind of voltage at your age is a quick trip to the hospital or the morgue.

Stick with the common safe way, with a battery - it's safe for a very good reason.

Answer 5

well, you need some sort of power source so that a current can flow through the wire around in circles around the nail. an electromagnet is using electricity to create a magnet, not create a magnet out of some wire

Answer 6

are u George W Bush? If definite then **** YOU !! yet whilst no, i will answer ur question : to make an electric powered magnet with out battery, you need to use a ruler, elect a skinny and elastic one. then you incredibly can strecth it on your arm, after which you will see the electromagnetic rigidity engaged on it, because it may carry up your hair or small piece of paper. via above approach, you're coming up a static electromagnet. in case you nevertheless decide to apply nail and twine, use photograph voltaic-cellular rather of a battery. this would generate ability at daylight hours from the photograph voltaic.

Answer 7

A person can make an electromagnet without using a battery as long you replace with another source of electrical energy.

Answer 8

in "wire and nail" system we need to have a source power ,cause magnetic field only could be made by electron movement in wire so we need to have a source power . for strong sources like batteries the field get much stronger and for weak sources it get weaker.

Answer 9

If you have a death wish, then yes, but otherwise do as the science teacher advises.

Unless you know what you are doing, you could kill yourself.
Just as an aside, you will need at least a resistance of around 600 ohms at 230 volt. So your insulation needs to be really good and wire size 33swg. AGAIN, DON'T TRY IT.

Answer 10

Never use any AC power cord like that. DC only. Here is what the electromagnet will look like. You can also use the bigger 'square' battery.

http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com/2007/01/homemade-electromagnet-project.html