Investigation of the Dynamics and Electromagnetism of Homopolar-Like Motor Undergoing Circular Motion

A homopolar motor-like system is investigated in this work, where a cylindrical battery is attached with button magnets of different diameters at both ends, and the system is placed on an aluminium foil, resulting in a circular motion. The physics behind the system is discussed and elaborated qualitatively and quantitatively in this paper, including the electromagnetic field generated by the magnets and the battery, and the relevant rotational and translational dynamics. Due to the complicated vector calculus and visualization required, electromagnetism is often considered counter-intuitive and challenging even for undergraduate students to comprehend. This paper aims to enhance the understanding of such systems without relying on very complex mathematics or visualizations of the various fields and forces.