Electromagnet Coil Curiosity

Here, in Joshua's very own words, is the report that went with the experiment.

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Electromagnet Coil Curiosity

2005 Science Fair Project, IdlewildElementary School

Experiment Performed by Joshua Merideth, Grade 4

Mrs. Gary, Science Teacher

Purpose
The purpose of this experiment is to discover if more or less coils of wire make an electromagnet stronger or weaker.

Title
The title is Electromagnet Coil Curiosity.

Hypothesis
My hypothesis is more coils of wire will make a stronger electromagnet.

Preparation
I made two electromagnets using carriage bolts, washers, wire, 6 volt lantern batteries and switches. One electromagnet was wrapped with 100 coils of white wire and the other was wrapped with 200 coils of red wire. I used two different colors of wire so I could tell which one had 100 coils and which one had 200 coils of wire.

I helped my Pop build a stand for the electromagnet because it would hold up the electromagnets and look attractive.

The Experiment
The experiment was made to see which electromagnet would pick up more steel nuts. First, I drew a chart. Then, I took a tray with steel nuts. Next, I lifted the tray up to the electromagnet. Then, I counted how many nuts it picked up and wrote it down. I repeated this four times for each electromagnet.

The Results
The number of nuts each electromagnet picked up are:

Trial	Red (200 Coils)	White (100 Coils)
1	53	30
2	47	31
3	63	24
4	43	28

I added up the number of nuts each electromagnet picked up and divided the total by four.

	Red (200 Coils)	White (100 Coils)
Total	206	113
Average	51.5	28.25

Conclusion
My hypothesis was right. More coils of wire made a stronger electromagnet. The red electromagnet was almost twice more stronger than the white electromagnet.

Q&A (as posed by Pop)

Why did you do the experiment four times? To make sure that the results were not accidents.

How did you make sure that having two different batteries would not affect the experiment? I made sure that having two different batteries would not affect my experiment because after two trials I switched the batteries around.

Why do more coils make a stronger electromagnet? More coils make a stronger electromagnet because every coil makes a small magnetic field, if you have enough of them close enough together it will be stronger.

References
HowStuffWorks.com
700 Science Experiments for Everybody