Another student made an electromagnet with an iron nail with eight coils of wire wound around it connected to a 2-V battery. She wants to increase the strength of the electromagnet.

Question

What changes can she make to her design to increase its strength? Select all that apply.
A.
use a shorter wire

B.
use a 4-V battery

C.
wrap more coils of wire around the nail

D.
reduce the coils of wire from eight to six

E.
use two 1-V batteries instead of a 2-V battery

Answer 1

To increase the strength of the electromagnet, the student can consider the following options:

B. use a 4-V battery: Increasing the voltage will increase the current flowing through the wire, which in turn increases the strength of the magnetic field.

C. wrap more coils of wire around the nail: Increasing the number of coils enhances the magnetic field strength because the magnetic field produced by each coil adds together.

The other options do not effectively contribute to increasing the electromagnet's strength:

A. use a shorter wire: This could reduce the resistance, but it may not be effective if it limits the number of coils or increases the overall resistance due to less insulation.

D. reduce the coils of wire from eight to six: This would decrease the strength of the electromagnet, as fewer coils mean a weaker magnetic field.

E. use two 1-V batteries instead of a 2-V battery: This would also decrease the total voltage and current, resulting in a weaker electromagnet.

In summary, the correct options to select are B and C.