An Exploration Into Electromagnetic Generation

Abstract

I feel discouraged whenever my power goes out, but my struggles are nothing compared to my relatives in India who sometimes have to walk miles to get power. I feel that exploring how to generate electricity with motion would help them one day by allowing them to simply pedal their legs in order to gain power.Electricity and magnetism relate to each other, given that both the magnetic and electric fields depend on the movement of electrons. Changes in an electric field create a magnetic field, and vise versa. This means that if you generate a magnetic field, you will be able to generate current, which is known as induction. This is shown by Ampere’s Law, ”for any closed loop path, the sum of the length elements times the magnetic field in the direction of the length element is equal to the permeability times the electric current enclosed in the loop” It is also important to note Ohm’s Law, or the observation that voltage is the product of current and resistance. Since the strength of the magnetic field is directly related to the current in the wire, the magnitude of the magnetic field would increase with an increase in voltage in the circuit.Attaching more magnets to an apparatus should increase the strength of the magnetic field, which should increase the amount of current. One can change factors such as the number of magnets, and measure the products such as the amount of current. In order to produce a change in the magnetic field, one can attach the magnets to a spinning device, such as a salad spinner, which would be above the electromagnet attached to a surface. That electromagnet would be attached to wires which would then be attached to a voltage meter to measure the voltage. It is important to keep the material and brand of magnets constant, as well as the electromagnet, materials used to set up the apparatus, and materials for the electric field. This is important, so we can best see the relationship between the number of magnets attached to the salad spinner and current measured.Teachers in school would be able to make their own generator in the classroom using every day household objects. This would put into perspective how electricity is a part of objects around us. They can modify the apparatus as needed to show what factors affect electromagnetic fields and generation. This project is exploring generators and electromagnetic fields on a small scale. This could be easily applied to a larger scale, including being able to power a house or a whole city. There is also flexibility with materials, meaning that new resources for generators can be explored. There are various materials to be used, including different brands of wires and magnets, and even other various spinning items like fidget spinners. Understanding how to develop generators will help shed more insight as to what we should do when the power goes out.