TonyWang

+2 MichelleTagoe
Ms.Pedersen
ClassIVPhysics
19May2017
Voltage is not a property of a motor
+2.5 SimpleMotorVoltagevs.AngularVelocity of what?

I. Introduction

A. Motors surround us in our daily lives, from cars to hair dryers. Their
+4.5
fundamental ability to transform electrical energy into rotational energy

and, subsequently, kinetic energy has paved the road for success in the

modern era, an agedominatedbyelectricityandefficiency.Yetfewpeople

have actually seen the inner workings of a motor, and neither did we

before this lab. After coming to this realization, we decided to construct a

simple, DC-powered motor and see it live in action. The components

included a battery, a magnet, two paperclips, and a coil. After some

background research, we found a set of instructions correlating potential

independent variables with the rotational force exerted onthecoil:forceis

dependent on current, wire length,andmagnetused;eachofthesefactors

directly?
links back a component of themotor. Wedecidedtotestcurrentsinceitis

essentially voltage considering I * R = V, and voltage is accurately

Did you use batteries?
designated on batteries, leaving very little room for uncertainty in this

rather unpredictable experiment. We will control the two other variables,

and we believe a stronger current will lead to higher angular velocity. The

Cool! What makes you think this?

What do you mean
on this? Electricity rotation of our coil doubtlessly relates to the current flowing through and
does not convert to
magnetism. What magnetizing it, allowing the magnet to then drive the rotation with
results in magnetic
attraction to and repulsion against the two poles of the coil. Since the
fields? Hint: look
back to the electricity converts to magnetism and a stronger magnetic force between
electromagnet lab.
two objects exerts a greater force whichresultsingreateracceleration,we

would like to hypothesize that higher voltage correlates to greater angular

velocity;therelationbetweenourIVandDVfollowsapositive,lineartrend.
This should
http://web.mit.edu/cmse/educational/motor_lp_kristy.pdf
appear either
II. Procedure in a footnote or
at the end.
A. EquipmentDiagram

+4 What is in this
picture? Your
equipment
diagrams need
labels. A clear
schematic diagram
would be much
better.

B. ExperimentalMethod
+6 1. Firstly, we made a coil from coated copper wire by wrapping it in 9 loops
around a small battery and stretching out the two ends of thewireopposite
toeachothersotheybecamealigned.
 2. After making the coil, we sandeditstwoendsegments,onlyhalfwayaround
thewireononesideandcompletelyontheotherside. Why?
3. We reshaped two paper clips into the coil holder and conductorbycreating
depressions to place the coil on. We also took care to align the paper clips
sotheywereparallelandofequalheightwhenstandingup.
4. Subsequently, we attached conductor cables toeachofthepaperclips.The
other end of the cables we initially connected to a battery. However, we
eventually switched to a DC generator since it can supply power much
higher voltages and, unlike batteries, will not deplete. Then we placed two
magnets directly beneath the coil, turned on the power, and our coil began
tospinwithaslightnudge.
5. Independent Variable: Voltage. We conducted trials from thelowestvoltage
Your
specifications at which the coil could spin steadily to the maximum output of the power
of the IV and supply.Ourresultingrangeranfrom3.9Vto30.8V.
DV are not 6. Dependent Variable: Angular Velocity of Coil. We took slow motion videos
steps in your
procedure. that allowed us to see each individual cycle of the coil. Then we replayed
several 5-second segments from each video as our trials and recorded the
angular velocity for 5 seconds in slow motion. After finding the slow motion
playback speed tobe1/7,wecalculatedthenumberofcyclespersecondfor
ourcoilinrealtime,thusarrivingatitsangularvelocity.
B. ControlledVariables
How?
+3 1. Paperclip Height & Type: Since distance affects magnetism, we made sure
that our paper clips were aligned and maintained thesameverticaldistance
from the magnet even after we replaced them. In addition, we used the
same type of paper clips throughoutourlabsincedifferentbrandsandsizes
couldaffecttheirconductivityandincreasetheuncertaintyinourdata.
2. Magnets: magnets were an essential part of our experiment, since the
magnetic field leads the coil to rotate. Therefore, we placed 2 magnets of
 the same type directly under the coil throughout ourexperimenttomaintain
thesamedistanceandmagneticstrength.
3. Wire Diameter & Coil Loops: Initial research told us that the diameter of the
wire we used for the coil as well as the number of loops we wrappedcould
affect the strength of the current flowing through it and, consequently, its
angular velocity. Since we neededtoreplaceourcoiltwice,wewrappedthe
same diameter wire an equal number of loops around the same battery for
allourreplacementcoils.
III. Results
A. QualitativeObservations
1. As expected, the rotation of our coil gradually sped up as we turned up the
+6
voltage. However, we also found lower voltages to be far more stable, with
the ability to rotate at a consistent velocity in one direction for several
minutes at a time. Meanwhile, higher voltages rendered the coil far more
volatile, fluctuating periodically in angular velocity and switching directions
after slowing down. The coilalsogeneratedsparksatitsconnectingpointto Yikes!
the paperclips while spinning. These sparks were barely visible at voltages
below 10 V, occasionally appearing as a light blue glimmer. They began to
appear more often as we turned up the voltage, leaping up from the
paperclip in bright blue and orange beyond 15 V while generating loud
snappingsoundswitheveryrotation.Wealsonoticedthegeneratorshowing
fluctuating voltages as the coil spun, often with a flashing Current Limited
sign. Voltage fluctuation increased with voltage as well, rising from around
12% below 10 V to 40% at 20 V and above. We will investigate this
phenomenoninthisuncertaintysection.
B. Tables
 +8

In the
future,
create a
table and
put that in
your
document.

C. SampleCalculations(firstrow)
a) Avg.Rotationsper5s(SM)=(8.0+7.0+8.2+9.2)/4=8.1
+4
b) Rotation(5sSM)AAD=(|8.1-8.0|+|8.1-7.0|+|8.1-8.2|+|8.1-9.2|)/4=0.6
c) Rotation(5sSM)%AAD=0.6/8.1*100=7.4%
a) Trial1R/s(RT)=8.0/5*7=11.2
You should show the general
b) Trial2R/s(RT)=7.0/5*7=9.8 expression for the calculation
c) Trial3R/s(RT)=8.2/5*7=11.4811.5 before inserting values.
d) Trial4R/s(RT)=9.2/5*7=12.8812.9
e) AvgR/s(RT)=(11.2+9.8+11.48+12.88)/4=11.3411.3
f) Rotation AAD = (|11.34-11.2| + |11.34-9.8| + |11.34-11.48| + |11.34-12.88|)/4 =
0.840.8
g) Rotation%AAD=0.84/11.34*100=7.4%
h) We used two decimal places when applicable in the last 3 calculations
since we wanted to ensure precision and the hundredths places could
actuallyaffectourresults.
E. Graphs
 +7.5

One question: where is your

uncertainty in the IV? Certainly Beautiful!
it was not zero.
IV. Discussion
A. Interpretations
1. Although imperfect, our data points toward a linear correlation between
+10
voltage and angular velocity. This trend confirms our hypothesis. After
Note that further research, we found that Force = Current * Wire length * MagneticExcellent!
equations Does this
Field. As such, current (voltage) does hold apositive,linearrelationshipwith
should occupy apply to
their own lines force and angular velocity! The magnetic field points directly upwards,your set
in scientific parallel to the paperclips, and works with the powersourcetodrivethecoil.up?
writing.
Since only the perpendicular parts of our coil are affected by the magnetic
field, its top and bottom parts drive the rotation. The top of and bottom of
each loop carries the same amount of current and proportionately adds to
the force driving the coil, causing it to spinfaster.Thustheneedtomaintain
the same magnets and number of coil loops throughout our experiment.
Considering all three potential independent variables, voltage actually
proved likely the easiest to experiment with. Magnetic field is difficult to
measure and calculate, and coils are subject to variation in sanding, which
 we found could easily affect its conductivity. Sanding proved an extremely
difficulttaskduringtheearlystagesoftheexperiment,sincewewereinitially
unaware of the workings behind a properly functioning motor and
completely sanded both ends while searching for other errors. Ultimately,
however, our hypothesis has been confirmed. Current is a factor in the
purely multiplicative equation for force, which stands proportionate to the
angular velocity of our coil. Since voltage is also directly correlated to
current, the angular velocity of aDCmotorincreasesinalinearfashionas
itsvoltageinputincreases.
B. Uncertainties
Excellent degree of detail here.
1. IV: The voltage meter on our power supply fluctuated constantly as the coil
+4
spun, usually by approximately 10% by varying by 20% at times; yet we
noticed no significant change in the angular velocity of our coil even as the
voltage appeared to take on drastically different values each second. We
could not possibly record the voltage input every second, but we noticed
almost all the data points blending together at the maximum observed
uncertainty rate of around 20%. However, the coil did display significant
jumps in angular velocity as we turned up the voltage input. We are
uncertain as to exactly whythesefluctuationsoccur,butwebelievetheyare
a problem with the generator itself and not actual uncertainty values. As
such, we have omitted horizontal error bars on our graph since we do not
knowhowtofindx-valuedeviationinthislab.
2. DV: The uncertainties in our DV were very noticeable for this lab, since the
coil undergoes cycles of stable rotation and decceleration andwerecorded
our videos throughout these cycles, thus receiving slow-motion of every
stage in the coils rotation. However,thesedifferentstagesprovedtobethe
major source of uncertainty in our data collection, with AAD for angular
velocity reaching 20% at times in replaying our recordings. In addition, we
 counted the rotations ourselves, down to the tenth, and the fractionsofone
spinproveddifficulttoestimate,introducingmoreuncertainty.
C. SuggestionsforImprovement
1. Next time we will take care to read instructions from different sources to
+2
make sure we have all the necessary information. In the early stages of this
lab we scrambled to change every part of our motor when it failed to work,
not realizing the coil posed the greatest problem. A more comprehensive
knowledgeofthemotorsstructurewouldhavesavedusaweekormore.
This does not count as an improvement to your method.
2. We will all check our components before beginning the lab next time.
Another huge mistake we made during the lab was assuming our battery
held full power. Wecouldntevendrivethecoilby180inthebeginning,and
once again, we strayed far from the root cause in verifying all the other
components but not the battery. This assumption that the battery was full
cost us another several days. In the future we willcheckallthecomponents
beforewestartbuildingtopreventthesetypesofmistakes.
3. In the future we will try to find an application that records and interprets for
us, since our manual counting of the coils rotations introduced uncertainty
and still lacked efficiency. Hopefully we will find software that assists us in
datacollectionandimprovestheaccuracy.
Your improvements should help
you decrease the uncertainties
V. Conclusion you discussed above.
A. The rotational force exertedonthecoilofamotorincreasesasthecurrentofits
+4
supplied electricity increases, in a linear correlation. Since rotational force is
proportional to angular velocity and current proportional tovoltage,theangular
velocity of the coil correlates to the voltage of its power source in a positive,
lineartrend.
Experimental design: +8
Respect for lab space: +4
Attitude and presentation: +4
Execution: +5

88.5/100