I'm doing an experiment for the science fair, and my group is having a bit of trouble using a flattened copper pipe as a base. Does it work at all, or am I just horrible at making electromagnets?
heavier iron center, and greater windings... and distinctive electrical energy... look at scrap backyard Em's... theyre huge, and %. up entire vehicles... your widespread college challenge makes use of an 6 inch nail and a few ft of copper and 12volts... think of the flexibility/gauss generated whenh youre using 440v 3phase, at say 500 amps... now understand that an MRI physique scanner makes use of the comparable technologies...
base? I'm not sure what you mean by that, but I think iron (or, maybe easier to find, steel) would be far better than copper for the base. Copper is good for the windings of an electromagnets, but for the core, iron is better.
Depends on what kind of electromagnet you are trying to make. Thick copper will be a great conductor for really strong currents and with copper pipes you could potentially make an electromagnet that would blow everyone else's out of the water... the problem is that you would need to be able to run thousands of amps of current through it and it would have to be cooled with pressurized cold water.
Copper is not a mu metal so it is not magnetic. What you need to do is wrap insulated wire around piece of steel and then you will have an electromagnet!! Steel, Iron, Cobalt, Nickle are all mu metals and make excellent magnets.
