Instructions for: Faraday Effect

When a wire moves in a magnetic field, a voltage is created that causes current to move in the wire. This is the way that the power company turns mechanical energy (from coal or gas or splitting nuclei) into electrical power. Unfortunately, getting a voltage large enough to do anything you would notice requires a strong magnetic field, a lot of wire, and moving the wire pretty fast. The device shown in the picture is a coil wrapped with about 100 m of wire (the device is 6" = 15 cm in diameter), and a large ferrite magnet (it weighs about a kilogram). The coil is a closed circuit. The little stalk protruding from the top is where the two ends of the wire join, at a light emitting diode. When current goes one way, the light turns red; when it goes the other way, it turns green. If you vigorously move the coil next to the magnet, you can make the LED blink red and green.

 

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