Cyberphysics - Electromagnetism experiment

Electromagnetism experiment

The following experiment was performed by a group of students as a practical investigation into electromagnets.

Method

The apparatus was set up as shown in the diagram.
A iron nail was used as the core of the electromagnet.
Insulated wire was carefully wrapped around the nail to form the electromagnet coil.
How the strength of the electromagnet changed was found by comparing how many paperclips the electromagnet could pick up.
The paperclips were attached to form a chain of varying weights so that the strength of the electromagnet could be fairly assessed.
The number of turns of wire was kept constant while the current was varied and then the current was kept constant while the number of turns was varied.

Results

Current/A passing through the coil	Number of Turns of wire on the electromagnet	Number of paperclips picked up by the electromagnet
0	50	0
0.5	50	1
1.0	50	5
1.5	50	13
2.0	50	21
2.5	50	30
3.0	50	36
3.5	50	45

Current/A passing through the coil	Number of Turns of wire on the electromagnet	Number of paperclips picked up by the electromagnet
3.0	10	6
3.0	20	12
3.0	30	19
3.0	40	26
3.0	50	32
3.0	60	39
3.0	70	43
3.0	80	50

Plot graphs to show how the number of paperclips picked up by the electromagnet varied with

Use your graphs to describe any pattern or trend that you observe.