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Science Fair Ideas

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MarioAllStar

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Hello!

I'm doing a science fair experiment (it's a class assignment) and wanted to do something that has to do with electronics. It can be very simple, it must have a few variables, though (ie: 1.5V, 9V voltages). If you guys have any ideas or have done an electric experiment in the past for school, please tell me your ideas. This is for the eighth grade, so it doesn't have to be anything very fancy.

What I though would be really cool (but I probably coudn't get it to work) was to somehow 'levitate' small discs of metal (a round magnet would probably do the trick best) and create an electromagnet which repels the side of the magnet with the same charge. The way the disc would stay in place would be a clear cylinder which allows it to go up, but not out of a small radius of space. The variables would be the different voltages used to repel the magnet. For example, a 9V battery would repel it more than a 1.5V.

If you think this has a chance, tell me. If not, that's OK! But any other ideas would be appreciated.
 
Sounds like a good idea. The electromagnet will need a lot of turns and an iron core. One place to find the coil is in the electric water valve of a washing machine, or you may be able to find a solonoid. The 9 volt battery will go dead very quickly, so a 6 volt lantern battery might be a better choice.
 
I'm thinking that I may not be able to get it to work. Do any of you have some ideas that are pretty easy to do? It doesn't have to be inticate at all (one kid is just testing the strength of paper towels) just electronic oriented. I'd acually prefer for it to be very simple!
 
Hey Mario, I think it's great that your wanting to do this for your science project.

I'll tell you what I did for my 8th grade science project. It's not really electronics related. I made a wind tunnel (I was into aerodynamics and airfoil shapes and how they work). I basically made a box, with a transparent top. One end of the box had a fan, the other end was open to allow the air to flow through. I made several airfoil shapes (airplane wings) out of balsa wood, and tested them in the wind tunnel. I basically observed which airfoil shapes worked the best under different wind speeds. Which ones vibrated the most, which ones provided the most lift, which ones didn't work etc. The variables were the wind speed, and the different airfoil shapes. Just an idea, if you're in to aerodynamics :D

Because you seem to be interested in magnetism...You could build a generator to light a small light bulb, or a row of light bulbs. My sister did this for her project. I'll post a link or two on this, once found. The variables in this case are the RPM's of the shaft, and the output voltage and amperage.

OR you could build a wind generator. Basically the same as above, but the generator is turned with a fan blade from wind coming from a nearby fan.

An expansion on this project, you can use several different sizes of DC motors as generators. When the motor is not powered, and turned, the motor then becomes a generator. Thus, the motor will generate amperage and voltage, based upon the size of the motor and the RPM's that the shaft is being turned. You could show how different sized motors (Variable 1) and different RPM's (Variable 2) provide more or less voltage and current.

You could make a very simple audio amplifier, and show how different values of components will produce more gain (Loudness in the sound). This is a little more complex, but still able to be done.

You could build a solar power station (Although, this may become a little expensive) and use solar panels to light a small light bulb or LED. Variables here would be the incidence vector of the light rays (The direction that the light is hitting the solar panels) and How much light is needed to light a bulb or LED.

You can make a 555 timer circuit to make an LED flash. The variables here would be the oscillation (How fast the circuit will flash the LED) and the ON time (How long the LED stays lit according to the components used in the circuit. See link
**broken link removed**
 
Also, you could see how different metals conduct electricity. You can apply a small voltage and current through diffrent metalic rods of the same length and measure how the voltage and amperage differ from when they enter the rod, to when they exit the rod. Variables here could be the type of metal used for the rod, and different input voltages and amperages. Of course, this project would require access to a power supply and a multimeter.
 
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