Section 1: Magnetism

• Magnets

  • Magnetism: refers to the properties and interactions of magnets.

  • Magnets can be found in many devices you use every day, such as TVs, video games, and telephones. Headphones and CD players also contain magnets.

  • Depending on which ends of the magnets are close together, magnets either repel or attract each other.

  • The strength of the force between two magnets increases as magnets move closer together and decreases as the the magnets move farther apart.

  • Magnetic Field: exerts a force on other magnets and objects made of magnetic materials.

    • The magnetic field is strongest close to the magnet and weaker farther away.

  • A magnet is surrounded by a magnetic field.

  • A magnet’s magnetic field is represented by magnetic field lines.

  • Magnetic Poles: where the magnetic force exerted by the magnet is strongest.

    • All magnets have a north pole and a south pole.

  • The magnetic field lines around horseshoe and disk magnets begin at each magnet’s north pole and end at the south pole.

  • Two magnets can attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are closest together.

  • When a compass is brought near a bar magnet, the compass needle rotates. The compass needle is a small bar magnet with a north pole and a south pole

  • A compass can help determine direction because the north pole of the compass needle points north.

  • The north pole of a magnet is defined as the end of the magnet that points toward the geographic north.

  • A compass needle aligns with the magnetic field lines of Earth’s magnetic field.

• Magnetic Materials

  • Only a few metals, such as iron, cobalt, and nickel, are attracted to magnets or can be made into permanent magnets.

  • Electrons have magnetic properties.

  • In iron, cobalt, nickel, and some other magnetic materials, the magnetic field created by each atom exerts a force on the other nearby atoms.

  • Magnetic Domains: The groups of atoms with aligned magnetic poles

    • Magnetic materials contain magnetic domains.

  • A permanent magnet can be made by placing a magnetic material, such as iron, in a strong magnetic field.

  • The strong magnetic field causes the magnetic domains in the material to line up.

  • If a permanent magnet is heated enough, its atoms may be moving fast enough to jostle the domains out of alignment.

  • Each piece of a broken magnet still has a north and a south pole.

Section 2: Electricity and Magnetism

• Electricity Current and Magnetism

  • In 1820, Hans Christian Oersted, a Danish physics teacher, found that electricity and magnetism are related.

  • Moving charges, such as those in an electric current, produce magnetic fields.

  • When an electric current flows through a wire, a magnetic field forms around the wire. The direction of the magnetic field depends on the direction of the current in the wire.

• Electromagnets: a temporary magnet made by wrapping a wire coil carrying a current around an iron core.

  • An electromagnet is made from a current-carrying wire.

  • Solenoid: A single wire wrapped into a cylindrical wire coil

    • A solenoid wrapped around an iron core forms an electromagnet.

  • The sound is produced by a loudspeaker that contains an electromagnet connected to a flexible speaker cone that is usually made from paper, plastic, or metal.

    • The electromagnet in a speaker converts electrical energy into mechanical energy to produce sound.

  • An electromagnet can be made to rotate in a magnetic field.

  • One way to change the forces that make the electromagnet rotate is to change the current in the electromagnet.

  • Galvanometers: devices that use an electromagnet to measure electric current.

  • The rotation of the needle in a galvanometer depends on the amount of current flowing in the electromagnet. The current flowing into the galvanometer in a car’s fuel gauge changes as the amount of fuel changes.

• Electric Motor: a device that changes electrical energy into mechanical energy.

  • Electric motors are used in all types of industry, agriculture, and transportation, including airplanes and automobiles.

  • The main parts of a simple electric motor include a wire coil, a permanent magnet, and a source of electric current, such as a battery.

    • The battery produces the current that makes the coil an electromagnet.

  • In a simple electric motor, a coil rotates between the poles of a permanent magnet. To keep the coil rotating, the current must change direction twice during each rotation.

Section 3: Producing Electric Current

• From Mechanical to Electrical Energy

  • Electromagnetic Induction: The generation of a current by a changing magnetic field

  • Generator: uses electromagnetic induction to transform mechanical energy into electrical energy.

  • The coil in a generator is rotated by an outside source of mechanical energy.

  • The current in the coil changes direction each time the ends of the coil move past the poles of the permanent magnet.

  • As the generator’s wire coil rotates through the magnetic field of the permanent magnet, current flows through the coil.

  • There is a relationship between electricity and magnetism.

  • This connection occurs because the electric force and the magnetic force are two different aspects of the same force.

  • An electromagnetic force exists between all objects that have electric charge. Just like the magnetic and the electric force, the electromagnetic force can be attractive or repulsive.

  • Turbine: a large wheel that rotates when pushed by water, wind, or steam.

  • Some power plants first produce thermal energy by burning fossil fuels or using the heat produced by nuclear reactions.

  • Other power plants use the mechanical energy in falling water to rotate the turbines.

• Direct and Alternating Currents

  • Modern society relies heavily on electricity.

  • Some devices, such as this radio, can use either direct or alternating current. Electronic components in these devices change alternating current from an electric outlet to direct current.

  • Direct Current: flows only in one direction through a wire.

  • Alternating Current: reverses the direction of the current in a regular pattern

  • Electronic devices that use batteries as a backup energy source usually require direct current to operate.

• Transmitting Electrical Energy

  • The alternating current produced by an electric power plant carries electrical energy that is transmitted along electric transmission lines

  • One way to reduce the heat produced in a power line is to transmit the electrical energy at high voltages, typically around 150,000 V.

• Transformer: a device that increases or decreases the voltage of an alternating current.

  • Transformers can increase or decrease voltage.

  • The voltage in the primary coil is the input voltage, and the voltage in the secondary coil is the output voltage.

  • A transformer that increases the voltage so that the output voltage is greater than the input voltage is a step-up transformer.

    • A step-up transformer increases voltage. The secondary coil has more turns than the primary coil does.

  • A transformer that decreases the voltage so that the output voltage is less than the input voltage is a step-down transformer.

    • A step-down transformer decreases voltage. The secondary coil has fewer turns than the primary coil does.

  • Power plants commonly produce alternating current because the voltage can be increased or decreased with transformers.