How to Make a Magnet With a Battery Copper Wire

Making a magnet with a battery and copper wire is very easy. All you have to do is to wrap the wire around an iron nail and attach one end to each battery terminal. Once you have finished, you will have a functional electromagnet which can be used to pick up paper clips and other small objects. It will continue to work until the battery runs out.

Things You'll Need

• Spool of insulated copper wire
• Iron nail
• 9-volt battery
• Lantern battery
• Masking tape
• Knife
• Wire stripper
• Wire cutter

Instructions

1. Get an iron nail. In general, the longer and thicker the nail, the better the magnet. Six inch long iron nails work very well, but smaller nails will do the trick.

2. Get some copper wire. The best kind for this project is single strand copper wire with an enamel coating. Braided wire, or wire coated with rubber, will also work well.

3. Get a battery. A 9-volt will work well, but won't last very long. A lantern battery is probably the best choice.

4. Leaving several inches hanging free, tape the copper wire to one end of the nail.

5. Wrap the wire around and around the wire until you reach the other end. The more turns of wire, the stronger your magnet will be. Therefore, try to wrap it pretty tightly.

6. Tape the wire at the other end. You can either tape it to the nail, or wrap the whole coil in tape.

7. Leaving several inches of wire free, cut the end free from the spool of wire. You should have enough extra wire to reach the terminals of your battery easily.

8. Strip both ends of the wire. You can cut the coating away with a knife, or use a wire stripper.

9. Touch one end of wire to each terminal battery terminal. The electricity will begin to travel through the wire, and you will have a working magnet until you break the connection or your battery dies.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to use insulated copper wire. Uninsulated wire will not work for this project.

• Try taping one end of the wire to the battery terminal. That way, all you will have to do is touch the other end to the other terminal to start the magnet working.

• Experiment with different gauges of wire to see which produces the most powerful magnet. Thinner wire can be wrapped more times, but thicker wire resists the flow of electricity less, meaning that there is more flowing through to generate a magnetic field. You will have to balance the two factors to get the perfect thickness.