Building The Motor

Few days ago, our physics class had an exercise where we tried to build our own basic motor. Our understanding of electromagnetism at the time to me, wasn’t at its fullest, so this simple exercise was a great opportunity for us to learn in a more practical way.  We were asked to bring our own materials, such as nails, wood base and the cork. I was really wondering if John and I’s motor was going to work. Even though the “ingredient” to success was printed right in the book, but I was just not sure that we understand the concept enough to apply it to real life.
But anyways, the exercise continued, I mean it was still a good learning experience whether we succeed or not. First we had to nail 4 long needles in pairs of 2, 2 to 3 cm apart. This was to hold the magnet, to create that interaction of magnetic fields. Then we nailed in few smaller ones in between the 4 big nails, this was to hold the cork so there’s space for it to rotate. After we’ve secured the base of the motor, we moved on to the cork. First we used a long stick and threaded it inside the cork, it was then held by the 2 holders we built before. Then we focused on the cork – motor itself. We first put the commuter pins in the front side of the cork, they were an important for ensuring the current reversal. Then we wrapped the wire parallel to the pins, and attached each end of the wires to the pins. This would create the interaction between magnetic field once current runs through the wire. The last part – which was also the hardest, was to make sure that the brushes touched the pins perfectly. We had a lot of trouble there because the brushes weren’t always at their greatest location, and it would always collapse after few rotate. However, after some struggles, we finally set it at a good place, where it would ensure the continual rotation of the motor. And Voila! Our motor is complete. Well it wasn’t the greatest motor built from wood and cork, but it worked on its second try, stubbornly ;)