Create a simple device to see how a force is exerted on a current by a magnetic field. This activity shows how an electric motor can be made with this force.

Students investigate motors and electromagnets as they construct their own simple electric motors using batteries, magnets, paper clips and wire.

This lesson explains how a DC electric motor works including a diagram and description and links to a video and a test.

Odd though it seems today, when Thomas Davenport was selling one of the first electric motors way back in the 1830s, nobody was buying.

Young scholars will build a simple DC motor out of metal coat hangers, a 24-guage wire armature and field magnet, 14-guage wire brushes, and build the motor so that it rotates when connected to a 10-volt DC power supply. Students will...

Student teams investigate the properties of electromagnets. They create their own small electromagnet and experiment with ways to change its strength to pick up more paper clips. Students learn about ways that engineers use...

Kids learn about electromagnetism and electric motors in the science of electricity and physics including the right-hand rule, generation, and induction.

An elegant picture of a pre-1900 electric motor, from the museum's collection. Brief caption included.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Expalins how an electric generator works.

Joseph Henry was an American scientist who pioneered the construction of strong, practical electromagnets and built one of the first electromagnetic motors. During his experiments with electromagnetism, Henry discovered the property of...

This lesson will explain the relationship between electricity and magnetism.

Students learn more about magnetism, and how magnetism and electricity are related in electromagnets. They learn the fundamentals about how simple electric motors and electromagnets work. Students also learn about hybrid...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] This lesson explains how an electric motor works.

An electromagnetic induction model that simulates an electric generator made from a conducting loop rotating in a uniform magnetic field and connected to an ammeter.

Hans Christian Orsted's accidental discovery that an electrical current moves a compass needle rocks the scientific world; a spate of experiments follows, immediately leading to the first electromagnet and electric motor.

A solid biography of good length and history of Faraday's work. Complete, readable, thorough. Picture. Lots of links to other sources, including Joseph Henry's claim that *he* was first, and another about Faraday's kinetic flashlight!

A concise biography on Joseph Henry gives details on his education; his experimental work in chemistry, electricity, and magnetism; and the many board positions he held throughout his life.

In this interactive unit students will see how magnets work and how they are used in some of the most useful and common devices today.

This site, in German, offers numerous apps that illustrate common physics principles. Apps are organized into categories: mechanics, oscillations and waves, electrodynamics, optics, thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, physics of...