What Causes This Copper to Spin?

NGSS Phenomena: A battery is strapped to a wooden board, with a wire coming out of each end. the two wires are connected to a spinning circle of wire that's held up a little bit away from the board. Under the spinning wire is a black circle on the board.
In the gif, a battery is attached to a metal wire touching a copper ring. The ring is placed above a magnet and begins to spin. This is an example of an electromagnet that forms when a magnetic field is created by an electric current. A similar process occurs in many doorbells. A group of students wants to investigate how this relates to doorbells and conducts their own experiment to create a “doorbell”.


Figure A contains the experimental setup the students conducted to replicate how a doorbell works.
NGSS Phenomena:

1. The north and south pole between two magnets will .

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repel
not interact
attract

2. Which of the following is the simple definition of a force?

3. If the two magnets increases the force between them .

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mass of
decreases
distance between
increases

4. The interaction between the north and south poles of a magnetic field are similar to in an electric field.

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high and low charges
positive and negative charges
strong and weak charges

5. A magnetic force is different from a force like friction because the objects influenced by magnetic fields do not have to .

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be touching
have opposite poles
attract or repel

6. The battery in the gif is needed to produce a(n) that travels through the wires.

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magnetic field
electric current
charge
attraction

7. What could be changed about the setup in figure A to determine the magnetic poles on the iron nail?

8. Refer to figure A. Which of the following observations would you expect if the strength of the magnetic field was strong?

9. Which of the batteries in figure A would you expect to create the strongest magnetic field?

10. If the spinning wire had more coils of wire, we would expect it have to . If the spinning wire has fewer coils of wire, we would expect it to have .

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the same direction of spin
a different direction of spin
a stronger magnetic field
a weaker magnetic field
less volts passing through it
more volts passing through it

11. Explain the scientific reasoning that led you to make your hypothesis to explain what might happen if we flip the battery around.

12. Which of the following would cause the copper to spin faster?

13. Which of the following questions would help to figure out what effect distance has on the movement?

14. The setup in figure A uses an electric current to generate a magnetic field. Your teacher asks you to come up with questions that could provide information about how changing a magnetic field affects an electric current. Which of the following questions would do this?

15. A group of students watches the gif and conducts the experiment in figure A and wonders why their experiment didn’t use a magnet like the gif did. Which of the following questions could they investigate to better understand why?

16. After conducting the experiment from figure A, students wonder how closely it relates to a real doorbell. What questions would they need to ask to get a better idea about how the two compare?

17. Your teacher asks you to compare the experimental setup in figure A to the setup in the gif. What questions would help figure out how the strength of the magnetic fields in each compare?

18. You and your lab partner are trying to get the nail to make a sound against a metal chime using the setup in figure A. You have everything set up, but nothing happens when you press the switch. Identify at least 2 questions that you could investigate to help you troubleshoot your experimental setup.

19. Which question would help us to determine the strength of magnetic fields that are present?

20. Which of the following questions would help to clarify the strength of the electric current that’s causing the movement?

21. Write a hypothesis to explain what might happen if we flip the battery around.

22. Which of the following questions could be answered with this experiment?

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