Making an Electromagnet
Gather the necessary materials. To make an electromagnet, you will need insulated copper wire, a piece of metal with known iron content, a 12-volt battery (or other DC power supply), wire strippers/cutters, and electrical tape.
The insulated copper wire needs to be thin enough to easily wrap around the metal and long enough to wrap a few dozen times.
Make sure the metal has no magnetization before beginning.
Using an AC power source will also work, but is not recommended because it is high voltage and there is potential for an electric shock.
Wrap the insulated wire around the piece of metal. Take the wire and leaving a tail of about an inch, tightly wrap the wire around the metal a few dozen times. The more times you wrap the coil, the stronger the magnet will be. Leave a tail at the other end of the wire as well.
At this point, you should have two wires dangling off either end of the metal, with the wire coiled tightly around it.
Making an Electromagnet
Strip the ends of the copper wire. Using the wire strippers, strip off at least ¼ inch up to ½ inch from both ends of the wire. The copper needs to be exposed so that it can come into contact with the power source and provide electricity to the system.
Take care not to cut through the wire when stripping it.
Connect the wires to the battery. Take one bare end of wire and wrap it around the negative terminal of the battery. Using electrical tape, secure it in place and make sure the metal of the wire is touching the wire of the terminal. With the other wire, wrap and secure it around the positive terminal of the battery.[9]
It doesn’t matter which wire is connected to which terminal as long as both are securely attached to separate ones.
Test the magnetism. When the battery is properly connected it will provide an electrical current that causes the iron atoms to aligned creating magnetic poles. This leads to the metal becoming magnetized. Tap the metal against some paperclips and see if it can pick them up.
Some metals will remain magnetized when the battery is removed, while others, such as “soft iron” require the electric current for the magnetization.
Magnetism occurs when negative and positive particles in an object line up in a specific manner, causing an attraction or repulsion with nearby particles. As long as a metal has some iron in it, you can magnetize it using another magnetic metal or an electromagnet. While you need a strong magnet to make another metal magnetic, the magnetism produce will probably not be very strong; it will be sufficient to pick up a paperclip or a screw. The strength of the magnet depends upon the iron content.
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