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How to Make a Kid's Electric Paper Clip Motor

A motor simply transforms electrical energy into mechanical energy. You can demonstrate this principle with a simple paper clip motor toy. By connecting a coil of wire, which conducts electricity, through paper clips to a generator of electricity, the coils create an electromagnetic field around them. When you place a magnet within this field, the coil moves, trying to align its own magnetic field with the nearby one. By alternating when the current is on and off, you can make the coil move perpetually, creating a motor -- until, that is, you run out of electricity.

Things You'll Need

Two paper clips
Pliers
Battery
Enameled wire
Marker
Magnet

Instructions

- 1
  Pull one end of the paper clip away from the body with your fingers. Bend the tip of that end into a small circle with your pliers. Form as near perfect a circle as you can. The more circular and small the circle in the paper clip, the better the coil will move. Do this for both paper clips.
- 2
  Attach the other end of the paper clip to the negative end of the battery. Attach the other paper clip to the positive end. Either bend the paper clips into shape with your pliers or just use some tape.
- 3
  Start coiling a strand of wire around a marker at about five inches along the wire. Coil as tightly as you can. Leave another five inches on the finished end of the wire. This creates a ring of wire with two unwound ends, or arms, each about five inches wide. Press the coil off of the marker with your thumbs. Wrap one arm through the coil and out again a few times to hold the strands of the coil together. Do this with the other arm. Leave each arm about two inches long.
- 4
  Scratch off one side of the enamel on the wire from one of the arms. Do the same on the other arm. It's very important that the enamel come off of the same facing side of the wire on both arms, otherwise the coil won't spin well. Doing this makes one half of the wire arm conductive and the other half non-conductive; that way when the arm spins, the current through the wire will alternately turn on and off, propelling the motion of the coil.
- 5
  Insert each arm of the coil through the small circles in the paper clips. Place the contraption on a rug with the battery as the base. Try using a squarish rather than a cylindrical battery to hold the contraption up easier. The paper clips should be facing straight upwards, with the coil dangling over the battery. Flick the coil with your finger. When it moves, a current is alternately turned on and off through it, creating perpetual motion through the interaction with the magnet on the battery. Your motor is now at work.
- 6
  Place a magnet on top of the battery directly below the coil of wire. Flick the coil with your finger. The coil starts to spin.

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