The Motion-ator

***[Hopefully, you are checking for homework on Friday--please do it today, and enjoy next week as a holiday.] 

Turns out (no pun intended), that a motor is just short for a motion-maker.  In class  today, what we made was an item that turned on its axle. If we put a piece of tape on an end like a flag, that would be sorta like a fan (if you were an ant). We turned (again, no pun) electrical energy and magnetic force into kinetic energy, the energy of motion.

  Continue to work on your motor until you have gotten it to work well. Here is the video to refer to:

Return to your textbook, and review the explanation of electric motors on page 237+.  Particularly pay attention to the diagrams.  In your lab journals, make a similar set of diagrams showing how your own home-made motor works, with detailed explanation for each illustration, and also N/S designations for the magnets. .  Do you see the similarities  as well as the differences between the book and your model?

What are 4 ways of making the motor turn faster?

Also, another explanation that may help you understand how motors work: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/electricmotors.html

Inside a typical motor

Although we've described a number of different parts, you can think of a motor as having just two essential components:

• There's a permanent magnet (or magnets) around the edge of the motor case that remains static, so it's called the stator of a motor.
• Inside the stator, there's the coil, mounted on an axle that spins around at high speed—and this is called the rotor. The rotor also includes the commutator.

If we compare the typical motor to the motor we made, the magnet is the stator (it stays in one place) the coil is the rotor (it rotates) and the commutator, the part that keeps the coil moving in one direction rather than bobbing between north and south poles of the magnet-- on our motor it is the fact that we have insulation on half of one side of the coil end, which turns the power off and on. The axle is the ends that stick out of the coil.  It looks cool if you twist the ends a bit, to make a twirly.

Have a very enjoyable spring break! Make the most of it!