"Electric motors are machines that change electrical energy into mechanical energy in order to do work. It's all about one magnet pulling (attracting) and pushing (repelling) another magnet."

• One "D" cell battery
• One rubber band
• One refrigerator magnet
• 3 feet of thin, enameled wire (#22)
• Sandpaper
• Two jumbo paper clips
• The cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper

1. Wind the wire around the toilet paper tube about six times, leaving two-inch leads at opposite sides of the coil.
2. Wind each lead around the coil two times to hold the coil together.
3. Take your sandpaper and sand all the enamel off one of the lead wires on the coil.
4. Next lay the other lead wire of your coil flat on a table and sand the TOP HALF of the enamel, leaving the enamel on the bottom half.
5. Carefully uncurl your jumbo paper clips and make a hook at the top end of each of them.
6. Now use your rubber band to attach a paper clip to each end of the battery.
7. Stick the refrigerator magnet on the side of the battery.
8. Hang the ends of the coil on the paper clip hooks.
9. Give the coil a little nudge to start it spinning.
10. If your motor doesn't work:
    
    • Be sure the paper clips are in tight contact with the ends of the battery.
    • Be sure that the sanded areas of the wire are shiny clean.
    • Change the position of the magnet

"Bada-bing, bada-bang, bada-battery powered electric motor!"

"Electrical energy flows from the battery through the paper clip through the coil and back to the battery. That makes the coil a magnet -- an electromagnet. Our electromagnet and our refrigerator magnet repel (push) each other and that starts the coil turning."

"Remember how we scraped off all the enamel or insulation from one side of the wire, but only half of the insulation from the other side? That turns the wire into a kind of on/off switch. When it turns, the enamel side -- which doesn't conduct electricity -- touches the paper clip and shuts the current off. The coil coasts around until it is in the right position to turn on again. This happens over and over again, which keeps our very simple motor running."

Electric motors are all around us. And they work in a similar way to our home-made motor. Our motor turns the current to the electromagnet on and off. Commercial motors usually repeatedly reverse the direction of the current passing through the electromagnet.

Electric motors power the fans in our home furnaces, ovens, hair dryers, bathrooms, and air conditioners. They run our refrigerators, pumps, audio and video tape and compact disc players. They even start our cars! Our vacuum cleaners, many toys and clocks, power tools, conveyor belts, and most of the machines in our factories are powered by electric motors.

Here's another project: Keep track, for one day, of all the electric motors that you use at home, school, work, and play. You'll be amazed at how many there are! Try to imagine how your life would change if suddenly all electric motors disappeared. Bada-bing, bada-bang, bada-blackout!!!

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