I am officially a mechanic

I always thought that creating a motor would be so complicated and only graduates of MIT would be able to achieve this. However, physics class today definitely proved me wrong. I can officially say that I have made my own motor that worked for more than thirty seconds. Now, I'm not saying I'm some sort of genius mechanic, but I do know everything that is involved in making a motor run. Here are the few simple concepts I needed to understand to create a small, running motor. The four things that were essential to the creation of my motor where a battery, a coil of wire, a paperclip, and a magnet. Before I go into detail about what these different items do, I want to remind everyone what we said a motor was. In class, Ms. Lawrence said that a motor was made of a current carrying wire and a magnet. Now that we know this, let's figure out what the purpose of all the items listed above have in the motor. First off, the battery is what carries the current. The coil of wire is what carries this current. We attached two paperclips that were bent to the sides of the battery. These batteries are what completed the circuit from the coil of wire to the battery. Finally, we attached a magnet onto the battery and close to the coil of wire so that it would provide a magnetic field. Once we attached the two bent paperclips to the side of the battery with a rubberband, we needed to create a coil of wire. I wrapped the wire around the paperclip to give it an oval-like shape. Once this coil was created, we needed to do something very important, scrap the plastic coating off the coil loop. We needed to scrape the plastic off because the current would not have been able to go through the coil, and then our motor would not have worked. One of the key things we learned before making the motor was a special hand sign that is illustrated in the picture above. The index finger points in the direction that the current flows. From there, your thumb signifies the directional force and your middle finger represents the magnetic field. This is totally dependent on which way the current is. Based on this hand rule, we knew that our magnetic field would be down below and perpendicular to the current, and then our thumb would be pointing out. The magnet is ultimately what causes this magnetic field. Thanks to our own physics hand sign, we could figure out the directional force and the magnetic field. Thus, we know the current carrying wire will feel a force in because of the magnetic field. The force that this loop feels will cause a torque. This torque will cause a spin. Ultimately, in this process we are turning electrical energy into mechanical energy. So, that is how I, Anna Hart Bassett, built my own motor. There are many things that I could have done with this tiny creation. I could have added wheels to the end and built a small car. I could have attached some fan blades and created a cool fan to use during the hot summer days. However, my personal favorite option is to add some blades to the motor, add some ice cream, milk, and fruit, and create delicious smoothie. It certainly would have been a tasty treat after creating my motor. While there were no smoothies had in class, I did get to keep my wire coil to remember my working motor.