Electricity, Magnetism, a Couple of Projects, and a Story

 Okay, so maybe all good things come to an end, because it appears that I have to edit my what-was-going-to-be-short post. For now, instead of making a post about my electricity quiz (SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE IT!) period. I have to make it longer and talk about the things that I did in these past few weeks in science class (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!). x.x OKAY so I will tell you a "good" story...but first I will tell you my main goal for this unit: to gain enough knowledge in relation to electricity and circuits, in order to be able to apply them in my life (trying to help someone, like my mom, to fix some broken device, for example), for I am VERY BAD in dealing with things related to electricity, and thus, feel useless whenever I have to solve problems related to those things x.x Also, I would like to build something new (...a robot, pehaps?), in order to surprass my cousin, who keeps showing off most of the time, with his freakin robotics knowledge (grrrr >:<)...OKAY STORY TIME :

  Once upon a time, there was this person who was sad because her vacations were ending, and she was bored, so she decided to check her e-mail. When she checked her inbox, she saw that the Science teacher had sent an email to her. As soon as she opened THAT e-mail, she met her fatal doom, for in the e-mail there were instructions for her to build a simple electric motor (which I didn't have a clue about what it was). During the first day of school, in Science class, her teacher had told the class about the project from her e-mail, saying that it was SIMPLE and EASY to build, and right after that she showed a video from the real Star Wars, with Luke (the main dude) trying to learn a certain....um...trick, with Yoda (the green dude with pointy ears) as his tutor. Because he wasn't managing to perfomr the trick properly, Luke started giving up, but his tutor kept telling him to not give up and to believe in his abilities (or something like that...). But Luke chickened out and gave up (don't follow his example peeps! ^^), just to later, have master Yoda show his awesome epicness and start performing the trick (<<it looks as if Yoda is a dog, when I say that he performed a trick 0.0), and made his apprentice like this:

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/images/general/blogs/nr/mw3/herp-derp.png

  And Yoda said one of those wise phrases that old people usually say in movies: Your biggest mistake, was to give up...or something like that. And the video ended.

  Okay, so the little girl's teacher showed this video with the intention of telling the students to NOT GIVE UP and to BELIEVE IN YOUR ABILITIES, which the girl found strange because it kind of contradicted the thing of the motor being EASY to build. And something smelled fishy to her (not literary -.-).

  After school the little girl came back to her house and decided to start building the motor. So she bought the materials and after reading some site that gave the instructions to build the motor, and watching a video that gave the same instructions, she started builing it, but she failed (x.x). But since she wasn't Luke, she tried again, and FAILED again, and tried again, FAILED again, tried again, FAILED again (...) AGAIN...(*and wasted LOTS of tape). So as predicted by her, the project is actually, difficult (for her). Luckily it was due a couple of days from that day.

  On the next day of school, the little girl decided to ask the teacher for some help, but the teacher just gave her the "c'mon face" and told her that she could do it (she also gave the girl, a thick coil of a copper, which the girl happily took :)).

  And the girl tried again, FAILED again, tried again, FAILED again, and cursed, and cursed again, and FAILED again etc. So she, decided to ask the teacher for some help again, and many times from that time, to the point of making her teacher annoyed and not willing to even talk about motors with the poor girl (don't want to give a bad image of the teacher: she is very nice and just wanted me to be independent and do the motor by myself). On Wednesday, the teacher postponed the due date to next week and that made the girl like this (told you she was nice):

http://static.fjcdn.com/comments/Derp+_33474575cd03a23b8855fa958b596fa3.png

  The teacher was even nice enough to allow her students to bring their motors on Thursday (the next day), so that they can receive help from those, who miraculously managed to buitl a proper simple eletric motor that works (there were about three students out of 21 0.0). Since on Thursday, the girl's ONLY coil broke due to an unfortunate accident (that I'm not willing to tell xD muahahahahahaha! Die of curiosity!), she didn't manage to receive proper help from her fellow classmates. u.u

  During the weekend, the girl was seriouly loosing her patience, to the point of wanting to throw her magnet* at someone's head, but she was an educated, polite lady, she didn't and instead, started throwing some paperclips at the floor to unleash her anger (I threw MANY 0.0). When she calmed down a bit (after 1 hour 0.0), she decided to read some more sites and watch more videos, regarding building the motor, and later, noticed that there was something wrong with her copper wire*, which seemed to be thicker, than the ones that were shown on the sites and videos. Not to mention that her copper wire had a little bit of a rubber layer on it, which she actually had to remove, in order to make the motor work*. So she removed some of the rubber. She later, noticed that her copper wire was thicker because there were many wires attached together. She also notice that she wasn't using a copper wire, but a SILVER copper wire, which has a different color from a plain copper wire (sorry, I was just kind of dumb at that time...x.x). So she got one wire from the bundle of wires, and used that wire in her motor...and, AND, AND, AND, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNND, IT WORKED! So she ran aroung her apartment, shouted, screamed, jumped, danced, and told her friends (yeah I actually did that...how embarasing... -u.u-). She later, told her teacher, but never got to show it to her, because somehow, the teacher didn't ask for her students to show her their motors. So the girl thought that her efforts were wasted, and she finally stopped worrying about building that blasted motor.

The end :)

*More Information Regarding the 


Simple Electric Motor Project:

Simple electric motor
http://safetypinmotor.com/Pictures/done.GIF

  When my teacher was announcing this project, she showed us a Star Wars video (the "real" Star Wars or whatever) about Yoda (the green dude), trying to teach some trick to Luke (uummm...the dude that is not green), which he (Luke) kept failing and gave up to do it, only to later, see the old tiny green geezer performing the trick (what does he want? A cookie? -.-). My teacher's purpose of showing this video was to teach us NOT TO GIVE UP and to have faith in our own abilities (<<which I believe that she was indirectly telling us that the project, although sounding simple, won't be that easy for us to do - according to my super good intuition).

  And didn't I hit the spot? About 95% of the class failed to build the project (ha-ha me included), while the other 5% succeeded (duh?). But I'm not going to talk about my classmates' activities because this blog is only about ME! >:<


  After about 20 failed attempts, I've managed to finally make the bloody thing work (because of that I've even memorized by heart, the procedures of building the motor x.x).

  To build this motor, you will need:

• 12 inches of copper wire
• A permanent marker
• Tape
• A D Cell battery
• 2 paper clips
• A ruler
• A magnet
• And unecessarily, rubber gloves (in case you don't want to get shocked, like I was...about 3 times, which happened to be very painful to the sensitive me T.T)

  Ok, so you start by getting the copper wire. Remove the rubber (if there is one), from it (if it's insulated). Get  a wire from inside of the insulated wire.Next, try finding its center (lets do some math: if the wire has 12 inches, than half of it will be 6 inches - the middle of the wire). Give yourselves a pat on the back if you got that right, and if you didn't, hit yourself, or go back to Elementary School and forget about doing this 0.0). Hold on to the wire in its center part and then put the wire on top of the permanent marker (don't you dare let go of that center point of the wire, you hear me!). Make the two ends of the wire go around the permanent marker about 4 or 5 times, forming many circles. Remove those circles from the marker and DON'T LET GO OF THEM! In order to hold those circles to together, get the two remaining ends of the wire and make them go around the edge of the circle (about 2 times), and pull the two ends, in order to tightly hold the circle (make sure that the ends of the wire are in opposite sides). You now, just made a coil (congratulations)!

  Put the coil on a flat surface, and get the permanent marker. Paint half (one side of the wires) of each side of the extended lines of the coil (paint the part that is facing towards you, while it is laid down on the flat surface).

  Put the coil aside, and get the two paper clips, extend one part of both paperclips, in order to form "P"s. Then, attach the extended part of the paperclips on each side of the battery (make sure it is properly touching the center of the each of the battery's sides). Get some tape, and tape the extended part of the paperclips in each side. Make sure you tape them properly (the paperclips won't be loose on the sides of the paperclip).

  Now put your gloves (if you don't want to get shocked) and try to put the extended sides of the coil, in the hole of the "P" shaped paperclips (make sure the sides of the coil are straight). Get the magnet and put it below the coil. If your coil is not spinning, then use your finger to give it a few spins (after that, it will start spinning). If it's spinning then that means that your motor is functioning well. Congrats! ^^

  IF it's not spinning, well there might be some possible errors for that>

• You might've not properly placed the extended part of the paperclips in the center of the wire (make sure they are there).
• The ends of your coil are not very straight.

  Afer some spins, the coil will probably start spinning because some of the ink from the permanent marker, might've come off. To solve that, you can just paint the ends of the coil again (same way as before)!^^

  

  WARNING: Don't leave the coil connected to the battery (inside the paperclips). Or else you will keeping wasting the battery's energy!

I believe that the way this motor works is like this: the voltage that is produced by the battery gives impulse to an electron from the wire, which will push the other electron, and so on, forming an electric current, that will flow through the paper clips and the coil, until the other side of the battery (since one side of the battery is positive, while the other is negative, and opposites attract). This current, with its negative charges, will create a  negative magnetic field, which will make the circle of the coil attract to the positive pole of the magnet, and start spinning.

These are some pictures of my motor:

As  you can see here, I didn't use paperclips, but yes, som very thick copper  material (I believe that you can also use that).

I also, used a silver copper wire (which also works).

This is a video of my motor working:

  Oh well, if you want to try to build a simple electric motor then I have to say...that I wish you GOOD LUCK! (<<There are many ways to build a motor, trust me)

  I've tried MANY TIMES to do this motor and FAILED A LOT! It was pretty difficult, but I have managed to build it properly, which made and stil makes me like that weird creepy happy face 0.0. But I believe that the reason why I failed a lot, was because I wasn't thinking outside of the experiment a lot. For example, I just left the rubber of my wire on that bunch of wire (which was pretty stupid I have to admit), and didn't think that since rubber is an insulator, it will disable the electric current in the circuit from flowing properly (which I knew and still know already, okay? -.-). Also, I was so impatient when watching the videos and reading the sites that gave me the instructions to build the motor, that I didn't even observe the motor very well; thus resulting in me not noticing that the wires that were being used in the videos and in the sites, was thinner that than the bundle of wire that I was using. I should learn how to be more patient and more observant. -.-

  And so, a continuation to the little girl's great adventure!

  It was revealed in the end, that the simple eletric motor project was actually a project that was supposed to introduce the class to the next unit in their Science class: Electricity and Magnetism. The little girl, together with her fellow 9th grade classmates, have studied electricity in 7th grade, but she had forgotten some of the things that she learned (I'm not old, but that doesn't mean that I can't forget about some of the things that I've learned two years ago, right?). So then, the teacher decided to start on a new small project, which consisted of the class being divided into groups of three, and create a poster, presenting one of the following themes (that I and co. had learned two years ago):

1. I can explain how electric charges interact.
2. I can give example of how charges can be transferred between materials and explain them.
3. I can explain how an electric current is produced.
4. I can compare conductors with insulators.
5. I can explain how resistance affects current.
6. I can use Ohm's law to calculate resistance, current, or voltage.
7. I can build series and parallel circuits and describe its parts.
8. I can explain the relationship between power, voltage, and current.

  The little girl's group ended up getting the 4th theme about conductors and insulators. Thus, they made their poster...

INFORMATION REGARDING INSULATORS AND CONDUCTORS

-Insulators- materials that have more resistance, than conductors. They have tightly bounded electrons and are used to stop the flow of charges, the eletric current in other words. Insulators can be rubber and wood.

-Conductors-materials that have less resistance, than insulators. They have loose electrons and are used to conduct the eletric current (the opposite of insulators). Conductors can be copper wires and other metals.

  On the day of the presentation, all groups presented their posters with their own given themes (duh!). With their presentations, the little girl and her classmates learned:

  How Electric Charges Work

-Positive charges attract to negative charges.

-Positive charges repel with other positive charges         (Opposite charges attract and similar charges repel)

-Negative charges repel with other negative charges.

  
  Transferring Charges


  -Electrons can be transferred by three kinds of methods:

• Friction- the transfer of electrons from one uncharged object to another uncharged object through rubbing one material against the other. Example, a person's socks rubbing against a carpet. The electrons move from the carpet to the sock, causing an overall negative charge on the sock.
• Conduction- the transfer of electrons from a charged object to another charged object by direct contact of a material to another. Example, when a negatively charged sock (that becomes negative after rubbing against a carpet) touches the skin of a person. Electrons are then distributed throughout the person's body.
• Induction- the movement of electrons to one part of an object that is caused by the electric filed of the second object. Example, when electrons (the electrons gained from the sock) on the person's finger produces and eletric field that repeles the negative charges and attracts the postitive charges on a doorknob.

  Electric Current

-Electric current (a.k.a. current)- the flow of electric charges in a wire.

-It's produced by the voltage, which gives an "impulse" to the electrons of the atoms in the wire, which will keep pushing the other electrons and so on, proceeding the charge, and forming an electric current.

  How Does Resistance Affect Current?

-Resistance- the measure of how difficult it is for charges to flow through a material.

-Resistance affects current by stopping its flow of electrons.

-Factors that determine resistance:

• Material of the wire (ex. conductors, insulators)
• The length of the wire (long has more resistance, for the current can bump more in the wire's inner wall, and short has less, because the current can bump less :p)
• The width of the wire (a thin wire has more resistance because less area through which the current can flow, while there is more area in a thick wire)
• The temperature (the resistance of materials increases as temperature increases, and decreases when temperature decreases)

-The current will always take the path with less resistance.

  Ohm's Law

-R=V/I                                    R= resistance/V= voltage/I=curent

-If voltage is constant: if resistance increases, the current will decreases. If the resistance decreases, the current will increase.

-Resistance's units= Ω (<<Omega/ohms)

-Voltage's units= volts

-Current's units= amperes

  Circuits

-Series circuits- electric circuits that have one path for the current to flow through.

• Disadvantages: If a light bulb burns out, it will result in a break in the circuit; therefore the other light bulbs that are in the circuit will not light anymore (since there is only one path for the current to go through). Also, as light bulbs are added to the circuit, the current will decrease, as the amount of resistors (the devices that are connected to the circuit that act like the resistance) will increase, thus the current will decrease and the light bulbs will burn less brightly.

-Parallel circuits- electric circuits that have more thatn one path for the current to flow through.

• Advantages: If one light bulb goes out, the others remains lit (since there are more than one path for the current to go through). Also, the overall resistance decreases as new branches are added to the circuits. Since by adding more branches, the current will be able to flow through new paths, therefore, the current will increase, and the resistance will decrease.

-Circuits' parts:

• Energy source/battery
• Switch (often included), which open and closes the circuit
• Wire
• Resistors

Power= Voltage x Current

-Power- the rate at which one form of energy is transferred to another.

-Voltage- the difference in electrical potential energy between two places in a circuit.

-To create more heat in a circuit, you will need more voltage.

  PHEW! And these were all of the themes that were presented, which locks up all of the poster project with a golden key! ;) FYI: We had to write all of this in a blue and green sheet that our teacher gave us x.x

  And NOW comes the third chapter of my WONDERFUL best-seller story!

  After watching all of those presentations and taking notes of their topics, the little girl thought that all of the work had finished, and that she could then, rest in peace. Or so she THOUGH 0.0! Because later, her teacher told the quiz to make a multiple-choise quiz regarding the electricity unit (we are going to start focusing on magnetism later), with 10 questions, in Google Docs...

  Aaaaand I made it! And so far, two people took it (Yaaaayyy!!! Yaaay!), who shall for now, remain anonymous (:p). The link of me FABULOUS, EXTRAORDINARY quiz is right here~:  

♥ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dDFyeGhmWUxvVTZ0NHhWdnV5RjdCaWc6MQ 

  You can take it if you want to (but I bet no one will take it! xD)!

  ER-HERM! Continuing the story: The reason why the teacher told her lovely students to create a quiz was so that they can post it in their blogs and let other people take it, and also, take the quizzes of each other, in order to study for the....................................................................................................electricity test x.x

  Luckily, since the teacher was so nice, she reviewed with her students about electricity AND magnetism (<<which wasn't going to be in the test, but oh well! :p) in a powerpoint that she created, herself. In that powerpoint, she showed a bullet train first. Saying that the train moved through magnetic levitation. She then, showed her students a diagram of a magnetic field of a positive and a negative charge:

As you can see here, the positive charge's magnetic field is point to the outside, while the magnetic field of the negative charge is pointing to the inside.
http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/PS-image-25.jpg

   Sadly, the day after she showed the powerpoint to her students, was the day of the test. Of  course, the little girl did study a lot for the test. :) ...the test was very hard, miss...x.x

The End

  I hope you noticed that the "little girl" is actually me...0.0

  I have to admit that electricity is pretty easy to understand (I am also getting good grades in works related to the unit), yet when it comes to dealing with real life situations involving electricity, and forget everything, somehow, can't properly apply what I learned in my Science class, to the problem. T^T In electricity, I can't directly and quickly comprehen something that is being taught sometimes, somehow I need to think a lot before I start to understand the concept. By trying my best in that, I am pretty much succeeding in this unit, but that just shows how I have some difficulty (most of the times) in the beginning of the lesson of this unit of electricity. But I believe that the more I keep learning about it, the more I will understand it, and the more I will improve my abilities regarding this unit. SO, I WILL TRY MY BEST (duh! Like I would actually "try my worst" -.-"")! >:>