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Ever been at the beach, taking in the sun and surf, listening to the Beach Boys play on your radio when suddenly it runs out of batteries right in the middle of California Girls? Okay, maybe this only happens to grey haired parents. You being younger and smarter use a hand-powered crank radio to listen to the latest pop tunes on Radio Disney. If batteries and Beach Boys are too old-school for you, then this may be the perfect experiment.
A tried and true balloon activity is to rub a balloon on your head to make your hair stand up. How does the rubbing build up static electricity? Do this experiment to see if the number of rubs makes a difference.
Want to know how electrical engineers "trap" the energy in a circuit to make your favorite electrical appliance? Video games, computers, phones, and many other electrical devices use "resistors" in different ways to control the electricity in a circuit. In this experiment, you can make your own resistors out of pencils, and test the effect a resistor has on a circuit.
There are two main types of materials when it comes to electricity, conductors, and insulators. What are they made of? Find out by testing different materials in a circuit to see which ones conduct the most electricity.
How can toilet paper help you understand the mighty power of magnetic induction? By wrapping each roll with more turns of wire, you can figure out the best way to light up a bulb.
When your parents were kids, they probably wore polyester. Static cling was a major household issue! Now everybody wears cotton, which doesn't get static cling nearly as much. Why are some materials more susceptible to static cling than others? Learn how different materials react to static electricity in this experiment.
Have you seen the new Shake N' Light flashlights on TV? How do they get energy to light up the bulb without using batteries? Do this experiment to make your own motion powered generator and find out.
This is a straightforward project that shows you how data can be digitized and stored on magnetic recording media. You'll learn how alpha-numeric characters are digitized, and you'll use bar magnets to represent the individual data "bits." You'll also learn about how much information can be stored in a small space (recording density), and how magnetic data can be erased.
Did you know that you can get electricity out of a potato? In this project you will learn how do build a simple battery using a variety of different fruits and vegetables - REALLY! You'll be able to figure out things like: How many lemons does it take to turn on a light bulb? Does an orange make a better battery than a potato? Can you use each segment of a grapefruit to make a super-grapefruit battery? You will also learn some of the basics of electricity and circuits: What is voltage? What is current? What is resistance? How much power can you get out of a veggie battery? Does an orange battery run out of "juice"?
So, do a little produce shopping and then learn about batteries and electricity.
Here's a project that shows you how to build your own radio receiver! You'll learn the basic circuit elements required for receiving radio signals, and you'll be able to listen to AM radio broadcasts with something you made yourself. A nice feature of this project is that you can make it as easy or as advanced as you want.
Electric charges in motion create magnetic fields. You can create an electromagnet with a simple coil of wire and a battery. This project has ideas for exploring how the strength of the electromagnet depends on the size of the coil or the voltage supplied to it.
Everyone is familiar with the idea that electric current passing through devices can heat them up. Most of us have used appliances like electric stoves, hair dryers, and toasters that are made specifically for heating. We've also noticed that things that run on electricity get warm when the current is turned on. Have you ever turned this relationship around and wondered if it is possible to use heat to produce current? Did you ever wonder if it is possible to cool things using electrical current? If so, then look no further! Check out this project to learn about thermoelectricity.
Here you'll find what you need to scientifically assess battery performance. You'll learn about how batteries work, how they wear out and, most importantly, how to make valid measurements to assess battery performance over time.
Another way to explore the inter-relationship of electricity and magnetism is to build your own electric motor. This project contains detailed information on exactly how to do it, including a Really Clever Trick.
Solar cells provide a clean way of making electricity directly from sunlight. In this project you will build a simple circuit and experimental setup to investigate whether the power output of a solar cell changes with ambient temperature.
Did you know that firefighters never spray water on an electrical fire? That's because ordinary tap water conducts electricity. This project will show you how to measure the conductance of water, and how to relate your measurements to water quality.
Solar power is hot these days. Gleaming, black solar panels soak up rays on more and more rooftops of homes and businesses providing a clean, alternative source of heat and electricity. You might guess that different times of the day yield different levels of solar power. But just how much does the sun's position in the sky affect the power that solar cells and panels can generate? That's the question this project is all about.
Solar cells are an alternative method for generating electricity directly from sunlight. With this project, you can get down to the atomic level and learn about the world of solid-state electronics as you investigate how solar cells work. Your experiment will measure the effect of changing light intensity on power output from the solar cell. A possible variation would be to investigate the effect of changing the color of the light.
Have you ever gotten a shock touching a doorknob after walking across a carpet? Static charge is responsible for that shock. Wouldn't it be cool to save up and store all of that charge in a homemade jar? It would almost be like storing lightning. This science project will show you how to do that.
LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are electronic components that convert a portion of the current flowing through them into light. How does the intensity of the light produced vary with the current flowing through the LED? To find out, you'll build some simple circuits to vary the current flowing an LED. You'll also build a simple light-to-voltage converter circuit to measure LED output.
Piezoelectric barbecue fire starters work by creating a spark that ignites the volatile lighter fluid, which then starts the charcoal burning. They are low current, high voltage devices. How high does the voltage have to get to make a spark in air? This project shows you a way to find out by with an inexpensive experimental setup to measure the distance that the spark can travel between two spherical electrodes.
How far would you have to travel so that the light of the full sun would provide "daylight" no brighter than twilight on Earth? This project describes a method to verify the inverse square law: how light, sound, electrical signals, and gravity each decrease with distance from their source. When you have finished your experiment, you can use your results to calculate an answer.
If you want to get your friend's attention at a crowded sporting event with lots of people cheering, you need to shout. If you're trying to do the same thing in a quiet library, a whisper works. The detection limit for each of our senses depends on the amount of "background" stimulation that is already present. This project uses an LED control circuit to investigate detection of changes in light levels.
This is a good project for someone who is interested in both electronics and color vision. The equipment needed is on the expensive side, but if you continue studying electronics, you can use it again and again.
If you have ever built an electronic circuit with a soldering iron, you know that the component leads get hot. How much of that heat gets into the device you're soldering? This project shows you how you can use a silicon diode as a temperature sensor to find out.
You can see examples of parabolic reflectors in flashlights, car headlights, satellite TV antennas, and even on the sidelines at football games. How do these "dish" antennas work to gather signals? What is the best position for placing the detector for these antennas? In this project, you can use an LED and a simple photodector to find out for yourself.
If you like playing electric guitar, this could be a cool project for you. Have you ever wondered how an electric guitar works? In this project you'll wind one or more of your own electric guitar pickups and test them out in an inexpensive electric guitar. How will the sound change with the number of turns you use in the coil? Or with the strength of the magnets you use?
In this project you'll learn how to make a piezoelectric pickup for acoustic guitar using inexpensive components. You can then connect your acoustic guitar to an amplifier, and record your own music. If you are interested in electronics and like playing acoustic guitar, this could be the perfect project for you.
Measuring the value of a resistor with an ohmmeter is pretty simple. You connect the meter to the resistor, and read off the measurement from the meter. But what if the resistance you want to measure is very low? This project shows you how to use a four-point resistance measurement method to measure low resistance values.
Have you ever wondered how an AM radio station works? In this project you will learn the basics of how your favorite songs are transmitted by a radio station. You will learn how you are able to tune to your favorite station and listen to music. This is a very simple project that requires very few materials to make, but it gives a basic knowledge of how a radio transmitter works.
Do you know how to find the north and the south poles of a magnet? What materials are more magnetic than others? Is there a way to measure how strong a magnet is? Is there a way to measure the strength of an electromagnet? How much does the material that is in the core of the electromagnet affect its magnetic strength? With this project, you'll be able to answer these questions and many others. You will learn how to build and use a simple meter for measuring magnetic field intensity.
Today magnetic recording is used in audio and video cassette recorders, and computer disk drives. Did you know that you can also use an electromagnet to record and play back from a steel wire? In fact, this is how magnetic recording got started. This project shows you how to build a simple wire recorder.
Additional Project Ideas
Note: The following project ideas are abbreviated, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk.
You've seen that a magnet's attractive force can cause a small object (like a paper clip) to "jump" to the magnet. So a magnetic field can act through the air, but what about other materials? Here's an experiment you can do to find out. You'll need a strong bar magnet, a stack of books, a paper clip, some thread and tape. Place the bar magnet...
You probably know that you can use iron filings to reveal the magnetic field produced by a strong magnet. If you sandwich the iron filings between pieces of waxed paper, you can make a permanent record of your magnetic experiments (Gardner, 2004, 66). Cover the wax paper sandwich with a layer of brown paper (from a roll, or cut open a paper...
Maybe somewhere in your home there's a long hallway or a stairway with a light that you can turn on from either end. It's a nice convenience, but did you ever wonder how it's wired up to work that way? The goal of this project is to build a similar circuit with switches, flashlight batteries and a flashlight bulb (obviously, household circuits...
An electric current produces a magnetic field. You can take advantage of this fact to make a simple apparatus to test the electrical conductivity of various materials, including both solids and liquids. The detector consists of a coil of wire, with a magnetic compass inside it. You connect one end of the coil to a D-cell battery. The other end...
Here's a puzzle you may have heard before which you can build as a simple electric circuit. First, the puzzle: a farmer is traveling to market with his cat, a chicken and some corn. He has to cross a river, and the only way to cross is in a small boat which can hold the farmer and just one of the three items he has with him. The problem is, he...
Resources
- Ohm's Law: V = I * R
If your project involves electric circuits, you will probably want to understand Ohm's Law, which describes the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance in simple circuits. http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/ohm/Q.ohm.intro.html
- A digital multimeter (sometimes also called a voltmeter) is a useful tool for many electronics projects. A multimeter can be handy for troubleshooting when you're building circuits, and it's indispensable for quantitative investigations(e.g., measuring battery performance or output from solar cells). This How-To takes you through using a multimeter to measure voltage and current: How to Measure Voltage and Current.
Sources for Additional Project Ideas
- Gardner, R., 2004. Electricity and Magnetism Science Fair Projects: Using Batteries, Balloons, and Other Hair-Raising Stuff. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers.
- Math, I., 1981. Wires and Watts: Understanding and Using Electricity. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Rosner, M.A., 2000. Scientific American Great Science Fair Projects. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
Experimental Procedure
Soldering
Some projects in Electricity & Electronics require the soldering of components into an electrical circuit. Solder is a metal alloy that melts at the relatively low temperature provided by a soldering iron, insuring good and lasting connections between electrical components.
Electronics grade solder is usually 60% tin - 40% lead or 60/40 with a rosin core. This solder starts to melt at 183°C (361°F) and is fully melted at 192°C (376°F). Rosin is a "flux" to help the molten solder to flow into the joint. Flux also removes oxides which form during heating. When you solder, you will see the flux as a brown fluid bubbling away from the joint. Note that acid fluxes should never be used in electronics applications. Use a small diameter solder for electronics work.
Here is a short tutorial on how to solder: How-to Solder
