March 2023 Visit on Friday, March 17, 2023
Experiment Lead: Gautam Hegde
Our March 2023 visit was on the topic of magnetism and its connections to electricity. The session was led by Gautam, who works on the electronic and magnetic properties of materials. Gautam began the session with a discussion on the notion of a magnet and magnetic materials. He discussed what exactly is a magnet, and what are the different materials that classify as magnetic. He also gave examples of materials in our daily lives that are magnetic, and stressed that not all metals are inherently magnetic. Gautam than discussed the Earth’s inherent
magnetic field, and how the compass utilizes this field to aid in navigation. Finally, Gautam talked about the idea of how electricity can be used to induce magnetism, and how we utilize this to build various devices that have applications in our daily lives, such as Maglev trains or magnetic trash separators.
After that, SFA volunteers arranged certain demos for the students to experience electro-magnetism first-hand. The first demo involved the students taking up coils of copper wire, and running a current through them to construct their own electromagnets. Then, they would try to pick up as many nails as possible using these electromagnets. They experimented with three different types of coils (each with a different number of loops), and found that the magnetic effect was strongest with the coil with the maximum number of loops.
The next demo was one where students created their own compass. They took bottle corks and inserted magnetized needles in them. They then floated these corks in cups of water. The needles, being magnetized, responded to the earth’s magnetic field and aligned themselves with it. Thus, they would point along the north-south axis. Hence, the students made their own make-at-home compass!
