How to Make a Piece of Metal Into a Powerful Magnet

You can use a battery to make an electromagnet.

You can make a simple magnet out of metal by swiping it repeatedly against another magnet. This causes the particles in the metal to become polarized so that the metal attracts and repels other polarized objects. These homemade magnets are not very strong, however, and may only remain magnetic on a temporary basis. If you want to make a strong magnet using metal, you will need to make an electromagnet. This is a great project for science fairs.

Things You'll Need

• Copper wire
• Wire strippers
• Iron nail
• D-cell battery

Instructions

1. Strip the insulation from each end of the copper wire using wire strippers. You only need to remove a few centimeters of insulation from each end.

2. Wrap the wire around the nail, leaving just enough length unwrapped to attach the ends to the battery. Coil the wire around the nail in only one direction.

3. Attach the ends of the wire to the positive and negative terminals of the D-cell battery. You can attach either end of the wire to either terminal and the magnet will still function; the difference will be in which end of the nail attracts and which repels (polarity).

4. Test the magnet by placing the entire contraption near nails or other magnetic (containing iron) materials.

Tips & Warnings

• The polarity will be reversed if you reverse the terminals of the battery the wire ends are attached to.

• The more times you coil the wire, the stronger the magnet will be.

• The more powerful the magnet is, the hotter it gets. Be careful when touching the coiled wire.

References

• Jefferson Lab: How Do I Make an Electromagnet?