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Coat-hanger Bubbles Experiment

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As advised by Mr. Fullerton, I did the Coat-hanger bubbles experiment to further understand flux!

Pre-experiment preparation:

First, in my closet I found a nice metal coat-hanger suitable for the trial. After attempting to reshape the coat-hanger, I learned that my hangers are very strong, or that I lack strength; so, I went to my brother's toolbox and grabbed pliers to help bend the wire into a slinky-like shape. My coil ended up having four turns. I then ventured into my kitchen to fill the sink with soapy water. With the bubbly solution complete, I was ready to start the experiment.

The experiment:

I dipped my wire coil into the water, and slowly pulled it out. I found that the bubbles didn't form well to the structure. So, I compressed the coil by pushing the turns closer together. When I tried again with the compressed coil, the bubbles formed nicely between each turn and along the outside of the coil. The formation of the bubbles between each turn demonstrated how the number of turns matter when calculating flux. Therefore, the more turns, the greater the flux. Hence, the equation for magnetic flux is:

png.latex? \phi_m= NBA\cos \theta

N=number of turns

A=area within one loop

B=magnetic field

png.latex?\theta=angle between magnetic field and positive normal direction

Everyone should try this experiment before the test on Wednesday!

2 Comments

Recommended Comments

Glad to hear you were able to get that coathanger bent and see the continuous shape that the solenoid makes with the soap bubbles!

AlphaGeek

Members

Yay coat hanger! :D I hope you don't mind, I posted on this topic too but cited your blogpost in it. Nice work here :)

Guest
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