Electricity for the 4-H Scientist Part 20

Now make another coil and core just like the first one and arrange them and a connection as shown in Figure 9. If you make and break the current to the second coil, you will build up and collapse a magnetic field around the first coil and again induce a current in it. You will see the compa.s.s needle swing back and forth again.

These last two experiments give you a crude idea of how an electric generator works, producing electric current by induction as a coil-wound rotor revolves within a magnetic field.

What Did You Learn?

What does every current-carrying wire have around it? How does this help us to measure electricity? How sensitive are electrical instruments?

What is the difference in voltage between (a) a large and a small dry cell? (b) batteries connected in series and in parallel? (c) your original connection and the reverse of it? What similarity does the test for induced current show between movement through a magnetic field and the making and breaking of a direct current?

Demonstrations You Can Give

Show others how your galvanoscope can detect: whether a battery is producing current, which way the current is flowing, and whether a current is strong or weak. Demonstrate how a current can be generated using magnetism.

For More Information

Ask your power supplier representative to show you some of the instruments used by his organization, and to give you a brief explanation of how they work. Ask him or an electrician to give you a demonstration of a split-core ammeter.