Question

(a) With the help of a circuit diagram, explain how you could make an iron nail into an electromagnet.
(b) State two ways in which an electromagnet can be made more powerful.

Answer 1

(a) To make an electromagnet, an iron nail is placed inside a solenoid. A solenoid is a long coil containing close turns of insulated copper wire.When current is passed through it, magnetic field is produced and iron nail is magnetised by induction. This combination of a solenoid and iron core is called electromagnet.



(b) Two ways to make an electromagnet more powerful:

• By increasing the number of turns in the coil
• By increasing the current flowing through the coil