Materials Required

Iron bolts-Thin/Thick/ plastic pipe, copper wire turns (20,40,60), A battery of 2,3,4,5 cells, a switch, shoe nails.

The Procedure

To make an electromagnet, take the enamelled copper wire and wind it tightly around the iron bolt in the form of a coil. Let it have 20 turns that run parallel to each other.
Make 2 more electromagnets with 40 and 60 turns.
Rub the free ends of the wires of each electromagnet with the sand paper to remove the enamel coating.
Connect the electromagnet with 20 turns to a battery of 2 cells through a switch.
Place some shoe nails near the end of the bolt and switch on the current.
Count the number of nails attracted by this electromagnet.
Switch off the current. Observe that the coil loses most of its magnetism though a few nails may still cling to the electromagnet.
Repeat this activity with other electromagnets of 40 and 60 turns.
Instead of an iron bolt, wind 60 turns of enamelled copper wire around a plastic pipe and observe if it acts as an electromagnet.
Count the number of nails attracted by it.

Select the number of turns of wire.
Select the Number of electric cells.
Select the core of electromagnet.
Click on the check box to refer the circuit diagram.
Drag and drop the copper wire from the top of the iron bolt towards the battery to connect it with the positive end of it.
Drag and drop the copper wire from the bottom of the iron bolt towards the switch to connect it with one side of the switch.
Drag and drop the copper wire from battery towards the switch to connect the negative end of it with the other end of the switch and complete the connection.
Click on the switch to on the circuit.
Drag and drop the dish containing iron nails towards the bottom of the iron bolt.
Observe the number of nails attracted.
Click on the switch to off the circuit and try other combinations to understand the difference in attraction.
Click on the ‘Reset’ button to redo the experiment with different parameters.

The electromagnet loses its magnetism when the electric current is switched off.
Larger number of nails are attracted by the electromagnet with more number of turns.
The electromagnet with plastic core attracted very less number of nails compared to the electromagnet with iron core.

An electromagnet can be made by wrapping a wire around a piece of iron and passing current through it.
The strength of an electromagnet depends upon the number of turns of the wire and the core used to make the electromagnet.