Evan Colenbrander

March 13, 2018

Physics 6 Period

Electromagnetic Experiment Lab Write Up

Objective:​ We used the question of How do electrical currents influence magnetic fields? by
investigating:

- How does the length of the shaft of the electromagnet affect the strength of the
electromagnet’s magnetic field?

Hypothesis: ​If you wrap 32 gauge insulated copper wire 100 times around a 3” galvanized nail,
a 2.5”​ ​galvanized nail, and a 2” galvanized nail, then for every half inch smaller the size, you
can pick up twice as many paperclips.

Procedure:

1. Get 5’ of 32 gauge insulated copper wire

2. Strip 1” of insulated wire off both ends
3. Keep 3” of wire unwrapped on both ends
4. Loop that wire around the 3” galvanized nail 100 times, as close as possible without
overlapping
5. Attach the 2 ends of the wire to the positive and negative sides of the D battery
6. Press the nail to a number of office depot paper clips chained, repeat until you can not
pick up any more paper clips
7. Record the number of paperclips picked up by the nail
8. Repeat steps 4-7, replacing the three inch nail with a two and a half inch nail
9. Repeat steps 4-7, replacing the three inch nail with a two inch nail

Materials:

➜ 1 meter 32 gauge copper wire

➜ 20 office depot paper clips
➜ 1.5 volt D battery
➜ 2” galvanized nail
➜ 2.5” galvanized nail
➜ 3” galvanized nail

Safety:

Do not leave the battery connected for too long. If the nail or battery heats up
disconnect the battery because it is short circuiting.
Data and Analysis:

Tables:

Length of Nail Trials 2” nail 2.5” nail 3” nail

Trial 1 17 13 3

Trial 2 18 6 3

Trial 3 15 8 4

Trial 4 16 4 4

Trial 5 17 6 4

We did five trials with three different types of nails. The two inch nail was able to pick up
the most with 18 paper clips. The two and a half nail could pick up the second most with 13
paper clips and the three inch nail picked up the least with 4 paper clips.

Force of the Paper Clips 2” nail 2.5” nail 3” nail

Trial 1 0.06664 N 0.05096 N 0.01176 N

Trial 2 0.07056 N 0.02352 N 0.01176 N

Trial 3 0.0588 N 0.03136 N 0.01568 N

Trial 4 0.06272 N 0.01568 N 0.01568 N

Trial 5 0.06664 N 0.02352 N 0.01568 N

We the found the mass of each paper clip to be 0.4 grams. We converted it to kilograms
and found the individual force for each paper clip. Then, we calculated the force of the paper
clips that each nail picked up. As this table shows, the 2” nail was able to pick up the most
amount of force and the 3” nail could pick up the least amount of force.
Graphs:

This graph shows the amount of paper clips. You can see the 2” nail picked up the most
paper clips. The 3” nail picked up the least paper clips. The data is mostly grouped with a few
outliers.

This graph represents the data with a bar graph. The blue bars represent the 2” nail and
it picked up the most paper clips. The 3” nail was the lowest and it picked up the least paper
clips.
 (without highs and lows)

This graph represents the data without the highs and the lows. When the highs
and lows were removed the 2” nail constantly picked up around 17 paperclips. The 2.5”
nail picked up around 6 paper clips and the 3” nail picked up around 4 paper clips. When
the highs and lows were removed the data was very consistent.

This data shows that the smaller sized nails we used were able to pick up more
paper clips. It happened because the loops of 32 gauge copper wire were closer
together and more tightly wrapped. We used three nails that had different thicknesses.
This lab could be improved by finding nails that all had the same thickness so the data
only has one changing variable.

Our hypothesis was correct. The 3” nail picked up around 4 paper clips, the 2.5”
nail picked up around 8 paper clips, and the 2” nail picked up around 16 paperclips. This
proves that for every half inch the nail length is decreased, the amount of paper clips
picked up will be doubled.

This image shows the three nails we used:

Conclusion:

When using 32 gauge insulated copper wire wrapped 100 times around a 3”
galvanized nail, a 2.5”​ ​galvanized nail, and a 2” galvanized nail, for every half inch smaller the
size, we picked up twice as many paperclips. For this lab we used a 1.5 volt D battery, 32
gauge insulated copper wire, a 3” galvanized nail, a 2.5”​ ​galvanized nail, and a 2” galvanized
nail to create an electromagnet. We used chained office depot paper clips to find the number of
paperclips that the electromagnet could pick up each time. We did five trials with each nail and
recorded the data. The 3” nail picked up 3, 3, 4, 4, and 4 paper clips. The coils were spread out
more because the nail was longer. This made the magnetic field more spread out so it was not
as strong. The 2.5” nail picked up 13, 6, 8, 4, and 6 paper clips. The coils were close together
than the 3” nail so the magnetic field was more concentrated. This allowed the magnet to pick
up more paper clips. FInally, the 2” nail picked up 17, 18, 15, 16, and 17 paper clips. The coils
were very tightly wrapped so it had the most concentrated magnetic field out of the three nails.
This allowed the magnet to be the strongest when the paper clips were being picked up.