We were looking in a book and we thought that electricity making magnetism was interesting.
We wanted to know how to make an electromagnet. We used the pictures and the steps in the book to build one. We found that the D battery would pick up thirteen paperclips. We wanted to know how many paper clips each battery would be able to pick up.
We tried D, C, AA, AAA batteries. First we built the electric magnet. Then we tried the D battery and it held 13 paper clips. Next we tried the C battery and it held 21 paper clips. We thought something was wrong so we tried the D battery again. We thought the D battery was bigger and should hold more paper clips. Manuel said the C battery has the same power as the D so it should hold the same number of paper clips. Then we tried the AA- we thought it should hold the same number of clips. When we connected the wires it was too hot to hold and we used paper towels to protect our hands. It held 27 paper clips but was very, very hot. The paper clips would not hold to the center of the rod just the ends. The AAA battery did not work because it was old. We think some batteries held more paper clips than others because they were new and had a lot of power. We think if we had all new batteries the Triple A would hold more than the others.
We learned that electricity can make magnetism. We tried new batteries and we learned that the new held a few more paper clips and the D battery held the same. The AAA batteries held the least amount of paper clips.
Our new question is, “Why doesn’t it work in the middle and only works on the ends? And why does the AAA hold the least amount of paper clips?”