Author: Julia Medina

Description

Grab a balloon to explore concepts of static electricity such as charge transfer, attraction, repulsion, and induced charge.

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Description

Adjust light source slider and begin your observations of how different molecules react to different light sources. Note that the interactive elements in this sim have simple description that can be accessed using a screen reader.

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Description

Ever wonder how a compass worked to point you to the Arctic? Explore the interactions between a compass and bar magnet, and then add the earth and find the surprising answer! Vary the magnet’s strength, and see how things change both inside and outside. Use the field meter to measure how the magnetic field changes.

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Description

Broadcast radio waves from KPhET. Wiggle the transmitter electron manually or have it oscillate automatically. Display the field as a curve or vectors. The strip chart shows the electron positions at the transmitter and at the receiver.

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Description

Explore the wonderful world of waves! Even observe a string vibrate in slow motion. Wiggle the end of the string and make waves, or adjust the frequency and amplitude of an oscillator.

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Description

This simulation lets you see sound waves. Adjust the frequency or volume and you can see and hear how the wave changes. Move the listener around and hear what she hears.

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We started this book learning about simple electrical devices, such as lightning rods and lightbulbs. By the end of the book, your learned about technology changing the world today! From learning about A.C. insulation motors that give incredible speed to Tesla cars to the various, complex parts of a smartphone. To say the least, you now know the important ideas about electricity.

And, don’t forget about the important scientists that furthered the fields of electricity. Ben Franklin’s experiment helped us better understand electricity in nature. This observation helped Ben Franklin invent a device that we still use to save lives today. Later, Joseph Swan’s first lightbulb and Thomas Edison later perfected it, which allows us to have endless light in our homes. And, then Nikola Tesla and his discovery of Alternating Current that allows the fast and cheap electricity throughout the world. Today, companies like Tesla, Inc., are designing electric cars to create a new type of car that is just as fast as other cars without all the pollution. 

So, the next time you power on a cell phone or turn on your electric oven to bake cookies, think about how far we have come from discovering electricity. Many people in the 1800’s would have never imagined that the world you live in would be so full of light and energy. You have learned the same things and performed many of the experiments that other people used to help us design this electrified world. You can continue this work and may even event Chapter 21 in this book! You now have the knowledge and problem-solving skills to continue this research

Click here for video of experiment.

Time: 15-20 Minutes

Materials:

1. Small iron nail
2. Insulating wire with insulation stripped from the ends
3. Battery
4. Paper Clips or Magnetic Objects

Instructions Step by Step: 

1. Wrap the wire around the nail in one direction, make sure the wire is tightly coiled. 
   • If you coil the wire in different directions, the electromagnetic force will cancel out, and there will be little to no force of the magnet. 

1. Attach one end of the insulated wire to the positive terminal of the battery and the other to the negative terminal of the battery. 
2. Check your circuit: One end of the insulating wire is on the positive terminal. The insulating wire is wrapped around the nail tightly with some of the exposed metal touching each end of the nail. The other is on the negative terminal. with the excess attached to the battery.
3. Spread paper clips on the table.
4. Touch your nail to the paper clips. While electricity flows through your nail, it will act like a magnet. The battery will attract the paper clips to the nail. 
5. When the electricity stops flowing through the nail, then the nail will stop acting as a magnet.

When electricity passes through the coiled wire, a magnetic field is created, and you can pick up other magnetic objects, such as paper clips! Some important things to keep in mind: the more coils your wire has, the better your magnet will work! Because more current is being generated, the more electricity is being passed, and a stronger force will be present! Be careful holding the battery, as it might get hot, as well as the insulating wire.

Questions to Ask:

1. Does the number of times you wrap the wire around the nail affect the electromagnetism strength?

2. Does the thickness or length of the nail affect the strength of the electromagnet?

3. Does the thickness of the copper wire affect the strength of the electromagnet?

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Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgj4av6FsaQ

Click here for video of experiment

Time: 30 Minutes

Shocking Fact: Why is playdough a good conductor of electricity? There is a lot of salt in playdough. Salt is a chemical that allows electrical current to flow through materials.

Materials:

• 9V Battery
• LED lights
• Playdough and/or Alligator Clips
• Objects to test: (examples: nickel, wire, chalk, wood, coin, copper, cotton, rubber duck, umbrella, anything you want!)

Experiment:

1. Setup the circuit from the last experiment. Connect your 9V battery to wires so that an LED bulb lights up.
2. Open the circuit so there is a gap.
   • If you only want to use playdough and copper wire add a third playdough piece. Connect the wire from the battery to this new piece. Now you will have a gap between the wire connecting the battery and the two playdough pieces connecting the LED light.
   • If you use alligator clips instead, one wire will connect a battery terminal to one LED terminal. Another wire will connect to the other battery terminal and nothing else. The third wire will connect to the other LED terminal and nothing else. You will clip these last two wires to the new objects.
3. Test each object by placing it in the gap you created in Step 2.
4. If the lightbulb lights up, then your circuit is full of conductors.
5. If the lightbulb does not light up, then something in your circuit is stopping the flow of electrons. These materials are called insulators because they protect us from electricity
6. Record what you see as “Observations”. Use your observation to decide whether the object is a “Conductor” or “Insulator“.
7. Repeat Step 3 with all your materials while taking good notes of what you observe

Step by Step Demonstration with Explained Vocabulary: Start with an LED light. When you touch the plastic part of the LED light to the playdough nothing will happen. But, if you touch the legs of the LED light to the playdough, the rest of the LED lights will shine. Why? The legs of the LED lights are made from metal. Metal is a good conductor of electricity. Conductors are materials that allow the flow of electrons freely. A good conductor transfers electrons well. The reason why the plastic part of the LED light does not cause the other lights to shine, because plastic is an insulator. Insulators are materials that electrons do not flow freely, but instead, are fixed in one place. A good insulator does not transfer electrons well. 

If you want to share your work, you can upload a picture, video, or PDF file below!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvsyDc8Bbzo

Time: 30 Minutes

Click Here for the Video for Reference

Materials:

• 2 copper wires
• LED lights
• 9V Battery
• Playdough

Experiment

Assemble circuit:

1. Connect the battery to one wire.
2. Put a piece of playdough on the other end of the copper wire.
3. Connect the other copper wire around the other terminal.
4. Put another piece of playdough at the end of the second copper wire. 
5. Create any playdough shapes you want, but make sure there is a gap between the pieces.

Complete the circuit with LED lights:

6. Use an LED light to connect your two pieces of playdough.

The electricity must flow through the LED light to complete the circuit. Circuits allow electricity to flow around and around through conductors. If a circuit s broken, your light will turn off.

7. Playdough resists the flow of electricity so you may have to push your LED light further into the playdough, so the right amount of electricity passes into your light. (You may also have to pull the LED wires further out of  the playdough if it only lights dimly.) 

• You can control the amount of electricity going into the light by moving the LED around in the playdough. 

Is your circuit not lighting?

• Check the connection between the battery and wires.
• Make sure the playdough pieces are not touching.
• Maybe your LED light burned out, try another one.

• Dead battery? Make sure to replace worn out batteries.

Keep exploring!

• How many lights can you connect? Can you use 3 playdough pieces? How about 4? What playdough shapes do you like? Make the best circuits ever!

If you want to share your work, you can upload a picture, video, or PDF file below!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-9U2wkwD4