Spinning Electric Bat Sculpture

Copper wire, a battery, and magnets spin a paper bat in 7 steps. Use the power of electromagnetism to create your own spinning sculpture!

 

Materials you'll need

• coated copper wire (magnet wire)
• sandpaper
• AA battery
• a stack of small neodymium disk magnets (ask a grown-up to handle this)
• black paper
• scissors
• glue

⚠️ Warning: Grown-ups only on handling and stacking the magnets. Set up on a clear table away from younger kids and pets, and count the magnets before and after. The wire makes a short circuit, so the wire and battery heat up: stay with the motor while it spins and run it no more than 3 minutes at a time. Never put magnets near your mouth or nose, because swallowing two or more can cause serious internal injuries. Let the battery and wire cool before you handle them, and store the magnets in a closed container.

Step-by-step tutorial

Step 1: Cut 10 inches of coated copper wire. Rub sandpaper on each end until the coating comes off and you can see bare copper.

Step 2: Fold the wire in half and sand the outside of the fold, which is the point that will sit on top of the battery. Bend the wire into a rectangle with the fold at the center of the top edge, two straight sides, and ends that curve in at the bottom.

Step 3: Have a grown-up stack the magnets on the flat end of the battery, the end marked with a minus sign. Stand the battery up on the magnets with the bumpy plus end on top.

Step 4: Balance the sanded fold on the battery's top bump so both wire ends lightly touch the sides of the magnets. Let go, and the wire will start to spin!

Step 5: Cut two matching bat shapes and an oval out of black paper.

Step 6: Lift the wire off the battery. Glue the two bats together with the top of the wire sandwiched between them, keeping the sanded fold uncovered underneath. Then glue the oval to the front of the battery.

Step 7: Balance the wire on the battery again so the ends touch the magnets, and watch your bat spin!

Learn more

This spinning bat is a homopolar motor, the same kind of motor Michael Faraday first demonstrated in 1821. When the wire touches the top of the battery and the magnets at the bottom, electricity flows out the top of the battery, down the wire, and through the metal magnets back into the bottom of the battery, which is why you sanded off the wire's red coating, a layer that blocks electricity. The magnets aren't pulling on the copper, because copper isn't attracted to magnets. Instead, the magnetic field pushes sideways on the electric charges moving through the wire, a push called the Lorentz force. That push keeps steering the wire, bat and all, around and around the battery.

If this DIY project was a hit, the Make-It-Move Electronics Set takes electricity-powered spinning further with 4 gear motors and 2 high-speed motors that kids wire to wheels, axles, and pulleys to make machines roll, lift, and go.