Building a cheap simple generator

David T. Kagan, and Robert Keith

Citation: The Physics Teacher 37, 248 (1999); doi: 10.1119/1.880250

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.880250
View Table of Contents: http://aapt.scitation.org/toc/pte/37/4
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

Articles you may be interested in

Experiment problems for electricity and magnetism
The Physics Teacher 37, 482 (1999);
10.1119/1.880381
 N O T E

Building a Cheap Simple Generator

David T. Kagan, Department of Physics, California State University, Chico, Chico, CA 95929-
0202; dkagan@csuchico.edu, and Robert Keith, College of Natural Sciences, California State
University, Chico, Chico, CA 95929-0202; bkeith@csuchico.edu

D irections for many clever and

easy-to-build motors have
appeared in The
1-4
Physics Teacher. In addition, near-
ly every book of science projects has
5
its own version. However, easy-to-
build generators are relatively rare, and
in fact, neither of the two that have
6,7
been discussed in this maga-zine
use inexpensive materials readily
available from local hardware and
electronics stores. The main rea-son is
that small mechanical forces created in
motors are easily seen, whereas the
small voltages and cur-rents from
generators usually require
galvanometers for their detection. Fig. 1. Schematic of generator.
However, at a recent Northern
California AAPT meeting, Don
8 Materials and Construction
Rathjen presented a version of a (magnet wire), which connects to an
generator that was made from easily A cross-sectional sketch of our LED. You’ll also need four ceramic
acquired, inexpensive components. generator is shown in Fig. 1; Figs. 2 magnets (3/4-in diameter, 1/4-in
9 and 3 are photos of the finished prod- thick; actual size 1.8-cm diameter,
His generator lit an LED and was
the inspiration for our efforts uct. The basic components are PVC 0.48-cm thick), a section of thick-
described here. pipe (1-in, thin-walled) wrapped with wall (1.25-in) PVC, a plastic coffee
approximately 1000 turns (roughly 120 stirrer (cut in half), a length of
m) of #30 varnished copper wire thread, a drinking straw—plus a
good supply of hot-melt glue.
The first difficulty we ran into—
finding a mechanical way to rotate the
PVC pipe to get the thousand turns of
wire—we solved by using a lathe
rotating at 250 rpm. Then we needed a
way to leave a space for the coffee
stirrer in the middle of the windings.
We solved this by cutting three thin
rings from the thick-wall PVC and
gluing them in place on the 1-in pipe
(see Fig. 2). Then we wound the coils
in the troughs creat-ed by the rings,
fastening the coils in place with glue.
Next we drilled holes for the coffee
Fig. 2. Side view of generator.
stirrer pieces through the center ring
Fig. 3. End view of generator showing
and into the pipe, and
magnets suspended on the thread.

248 THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 37, April 1999 Building a Cheap Simple Generator
glued them in place. The coil ends
are soldered to the LED and the LED
attached to the pipe with more hot-
melt glue. Glue also holds the four
ceramic magnets “sandwich fashion”
around the thread (see Fig. 3). After
we fished the ends of the thread
through the coffee stirrer, we used
(you guessed it!) more hot-melt glue
to attach the ends of the threads to
the coffee stirrer.
After assembling our inexpensive
handheld generator, we really blew it
—blew on the suspended magnets
through the straw, that is! The spin-
ning magnets create enough induced
voltage according to Faraday’s law
to make the LED glow. Actually, it
blinks. Do you know why?
Building a Cheap Simple Generator
References
1. R. Barrett, R. Frey, and R.
Kipe, Phys. Teach. 16, 505
(1978).
2. J. Entrikin and D. Griffiths,
Phys. Teach. 21, 398 (1983).
3. D. Lindquist, Phys. Teach. 24,
167 (1986).
4. B. Reid, Phys. Teach. 29, 352
(1991).
5. For example: Donald Rathjen
and Paul Dougherty, Explor-
atorium Science Snackbook,
(Exploratorium Teacher In-
stitute, 1991) p. 97-1.
6. L. J. Davis, Phys. Teach. 13,
311 (1975).
7. J. A. Johnson and F. Miller, Jr.,
Phys. Teach. 14, 36, (1976).
Vol. 37, April 1999
8. Exploratorium Teacher Insti-
tute, 3601 Lyon St., San
Francisco, CA 94123; 415-
561-0313. Don claims that he
first saw this built by Curt
Gabrielson of the Watsonville
Science Workshop, but has
since seen it demonstrated by a
group of Japanese physics
teachers. Curt Gabrielson says
the idea actually came from a
6th grade student named Van.
Sometimes these things are
hard to track down. Hopefully,
the authors have given credit
where it is due.
9. Plans for this generator will be
included in the long-awaited
Exploratorium Science Snack-
book 2 to be published in the
spring of 2000 (tentative).
THE PHYSICS TEACHER 249