Method
- Connect everything together and put the voltage on the power pack to 4V
- Wrap the coil around the iron nail 10 times and turn the power supply on
- See how many paper clips it picks up then turn the power pack off
- Count how many paperclips it has picked up and record in a table
- Do experiment several more times, each time winding the coil 5 more times
Equipment List
Iron Nail Coil Wire
Power pack Wires
Paper clips Crocodile Clips
Risk Assessment
To make sure that this was a safe experiment we;
- We turned the power pack off each time we counted the paperclips, we did this because if we left the power pack on it would burn out the wire, or the wire would get too hot to touch.
- We kept the voltage low because if it is too high, it would overheat, the voltage didn’t exceed 6V.
Method Diagram
Obtaining Evidence
Introduction
These are the results from my 3 repeats and then put into an overall mean average.
Analysis
Y= Amount of Paper Clips Supported
X = Amount of Coils
In this graph Y increases at an almost constant rate. Showing that Y is defiantly linked to the amount of X. The more coils the more paperclips supported the less coils the less paper clips supported.
In this graph we see the same trend as experiment one, increases at an almost constant rate. Showing that Y is defiantly linked to the amount of X The more coils the more paperclips supported the less coils the less paper clips supported, however it appears we have a anomalous result on the 3rd and 4th result we see that Y only rises by one when in the previous experiment we see it always rise at least by 2.
In this graph we see the same trend as experiment one and two, increases at an almost constant rate. Showing that Y is defiantly linked to the amount of X The more coils the more paperclips supported the less coils the less paper clips supported, however it appears we have a anomalous result on the 1st and 2nd result we see that Y only rises by one when in the previous experiment we see it always rise at least by 2.
In this average of all 3 experiments we can see there is a definite trend Y rises at an almost constant rate then begins to level off as it peaks however we cannot know this for sure as we did not collect results above 35 coils.
Here we can see all 3 experiments and the average put together.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that the amount of coils does affect the amount of paperclips picked up. This is shown by the average shown in a graph, which is a straight line. This shows us that the number of coils is proportional to the number of paperclips picked up. As the numbers of coils are increased the amount of paperclips picked up increased. These results agree with my prediction, because I predicted that as the coils increased so did the amount of paperclips picked up. This is because as more coils are added the magnetic field becomes stronger, which means it can support more paperclips however if we were to continue to go past 35 coils I believe that Y would eventually level off to a straight line because a magnet has a maximum charge once this maximum has been reached no more paper clips would be able to be picked up than what it already has.
Evaluation
Accuracy of results.
I am pleased with the accuracy of my results I carried out the experiment to the best of my ability and did the best with the equipment I had.
Reliability
This is one of the methods, which are good because it was accurate and we used a power pack instead of batteries. Batteries run out after a short time and their current is inaccurate because they do not give out a constant amount as they run out. I think that I didn’t take enough results because I don’t think that my result were accurate enough because after 20 coils the results began to drift apart and that is where the results begin to get more accurate.
In all 3 experiments we got anomalous results in experiment 1 and 2 were the Y trend wasn’t rising as much as it should be I believe this to be because the coils were not wound round properly thus not creating a bigger electric field.
If I could repeat this experiment I would make sure the coils were wrapped round properly thus improving the accuracy of out experiment.
Improvements
If I could improve my experiment I would take more time controlling the variables as my experiment can never be perfect there will always be something someone can improve. For example in my experiment we could of ensured that none of the paper clips were linked together.
Extending the investigation
I could investigate the difference between coils wound as a long coil, or a single compact circular coil, and see if there is any difference.