Real Lab Fruit Batteries Materials grapefruit, orange, or apple cut into quarter

Question

Real Lab Fruit Batteries

Materials

grapefruit, orange, or apple cut into quarters

4 zinc probes (galvanized nails)

4 copper probes (copper straps)

5copper wires (with alligator clamps optional)

1 LED (light emitting diode) (available at many places such as Radio Shack)

Procedure

Answer the Questions: 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 Please Do not write in cursive please write neat... If you can type it out.

Press a copper probe and a zinc probe into the grapefruit sections in such a way that they are a centimeter or two apart and not touching (it is crucial that they not be touching).

Use the wires to connect the orange batteries in series leaving a copper probe as a negative terminal and the zinc probe as a positive terminal.

Now connect the orange battery to the LED. Note: The longest leg of the LED is the positive end.

Q2. Which way is the current flowing?

Real Lab Electromagnet

Materials

index cards or 3 emptied toilet paper cylinder

three large iron nail (about 3 inches)

about 3 feet of THIN COATED copper wire

masking tape

battery (C or D)

some paper clips

Preparation of the Electromagnet

Roll the index card into a tube and tape it shut. Cut it into three equal lengths, so you have three identical cylinders taped shut. (You can cut then make the cylinders if you make sure you make them all the same diameter when you tape them shut.)

OR
Use the three emptied toilet paper cylinders.

Wind one of the tubes with 10 turns of wire, one with 20 turns of wire, and one with 30 turns of wire.

NOTE: Make sure you leave plenty of wire free at the beginning and end to be able to connect it to the battery.

Procedure I

Connect each of the coils of wire to a battery, C or D, by taping one end of the coil to one terminal and touching the wire briefly to the other.

Q6. How many paper clips can each electromagnet pick up?

NOTE: Do not connect the battery for more than ten seconds since the wire can become hot enough to burn fingers.

Procedure II

Place a nail through the coil and test each coil again the way you did in Procedure I.

Place two nails through the coil and test each coil again the way you did in Procedure I.

Place three nails through the coil and test each coil again the way you did in Procedure I.

Q7. How many paper clips can each electromagnet pick up?

Q8. What do you expect to happen if you were to connect two batteries instead of one only in this setup?

Q9. What is the definition of core as it relates to electromagnets? What was the core in the electromagnet you built?

Explanation / Answer

2. The current always flow from positive termnal to negative terminal. As per the setup, the current will flow from zinc probe to copper probe

6. As coil is wrapped around the tube and ends of wrapped coil are connected to battery, the current starts flowing through the tube which produces magnetic field. More the number of turns, more is the magnetic field and more is electromagnetic strength. Therefore, as per the experiment, tube with 30 turns of wire will pick more paper clips.

7. Same as answer 6. It depends completely on number of turns.

8. As we know that apart from number of turns, current or voltage can also strengthen the magnetic field. Therefore, more is the induced voltage, more will the electromagetic strength. If we connect two batteries, their voltage will add up and strength will increase. Howevere, it depends whether we are connecting in series or parallel.

9. In this experiement, tube is the core. An easy way to remember - The core is that part around which we wrap our wire to make coils. In this experiment, we wrappped wire around tube, so tube is our core.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse R
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.