ELECTRICITY STATIONS
- Use the solar battery and the overhead and use it
to create a circuit with a buzzer.
- Add a switch to the circuit and control the buzzer
with a switch.
- Explain how the solar cell works - go to CIRCUITS
for an explanation.
- The dark blue silicon is treated so when sunlight
strikes the solar cell, electrons are knocked loose and move to the
dark blue treated surface...if you join the two parts with a copper
wire, you get a flow of electrons.
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- Create a circuit and connect a battery to a light
bulb. (try two light bulbs)
- Create a switch at the point in the circuit where
you see the arrow and control the light bulb with the switch.
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- Create a circuit and connect a battery to a buzzer.
- Control the buzzer with a switch.
- Attach a buzzer and a light bulb and control with a
switch.
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- Connect the class electromagnet.
- Explain how it works. LINK
- An electric current flowing through a wire produces
a magnetic field. Coiling the wire around an iron core
increases the effect and the power of the electromagnet.
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- Use a large magnet and iron filings to represent
the force fields around a magnet that provide the electromotive
force to get electrons moving in copper wire.
- Our iron filings are encased in a plastic container
so you can use the magnet to make "iron filing icicles."
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- Connect the class motor
and explain how it works.
- The armature (or rotor - the rotating bar) is an
electromagnet, while the field magnet is a permanent magnet.
- Opposites attract and likes repel. So if you have
two bar magnets with their ends marked "north" and
"south," then the north end of one magnet will attract the
south end of the other. On the other hand, the north end of one
magnet will repel the north end of the other (and similarly, south
will repel south).
- This creates the rotary motion.
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- Use the class generator and explain how it works.
- The basic idea behind a generator
is to
convert mechanical energy into electricity by rotating coils of wire
in a strong magnetic field.
- A generator is just like a motor except water or
wind or steam or a human push turns the armature which in turn
creates electricity rather than the electricity turning the
armature.
- A
loop of wire spinning through a magnetic field will create an
alternating current. Note: current will flow only if the circuit
connected to the generator is complete...also note that the current
keeps changing direction - that's what makes an alternating current.
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- Connect a battery and 2 bulbs using a series circuit
.
- Add a switch on the left side to control the
lighting of the bulbs.
- There is only one path for the electrons to take.
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- Look inside the battery
that we've sliced open and explain how it works.
- A chemical reaction within the pasty mixture strips
electrons from some of its atoms. These excess electrons collect on
the zinc can, which acts as the negative terminal.
- At the carbon rod are atoms with a shortage of
electrons.
- The electrons at the negative terminal want to go
to positive terminal, they just need a way to get there. In our
light bulb circuit, the way to get there is through the wire.
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- Demonstrate the galvanometer and explain how it
works.
- A galvanometer is an instrument
used to determine the presence, direction, and strength of an
electric current in a conductor - basically a magnetic needle is
deflected by the presence of an electric current in a nearby
conductor.
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