Hobbies And Interests
Light Bulb Comparison
The simplest way to compare the voltage of a paper clip with that of copper wire is to gauge their ability to fully brighten a light bulb. All you need for this experiment is copper wire, paper clips, a 6-volt battery, wire leads with insulated alligator clips and a flat surface to insulate the electricity, such as a cutting board. By attaching different materials to connect the battery wire leads with the light bulb, you can compare the brightness of the bulb for each conductor. The higher the brightness, the higher the voltage.
Light Bulb Variations
With the same set up, you can test further variables in the ability of copper wire and paper clips to conduce electricity. Test the results for longer sections of wire or bigger paper clips on the same circuit to see if length affects the bulb's brightness. Another variable to test the source of the energy itself. Instead of a battery, you could try using a shaker, a crank, a solar cell or even a wind vane.
Electromagnet Strength
Since an electric current through any wire creates a magnetic field, be it improvised from copper wire or paper clips, you can further test the strength of an electromagnet created by coiling different kinds of wire. With a 6-volt battery, iron bolts, masking tapes, steel washers, copper magnet wire and paper clips, users can test not only the voltage of the coil, but also how the strength of the magnetic field is affected by the amount of turns in the coil itself.
Electromagnet Variations.
Since you'll have to wrap wire around metal core material, one variation to try is switching which metal you use -- steel, copper, aluminum or even paper clips. However, whatever core material you use, you'll need to make sure they're the same size, allowing them to fit the same template. First wrap layers of paper around one of your core samples to form a cylinder, tape it off, then slide your core material out.