Part of Lesson Plan: **Ingredient 3: Ignition (updated) by Thomas Dougherty

Activity Overview / Details

Each student selects a nut, bolt and two washers, and is given a length of single strand insulated copper wire.  They are instructed to assemble the nuts and washers on the bolt and wind the wire around the bolt between the washers counting the revolutions as they do.  We then connect the ends of the coil wires to both volt meters and the oscilloscope and pass a permanent magnet across the coil.  Students can witness voltage being generated and view an AC wave form on the scope.  Students will notice the correlation between the length of wire in the coil and the amount of voltage generated.  They will also witness the voltage fall off as the permanent magnet gets further away from the coil and the magnetic field collapses.