Electrical Power Demystified
Electrical Power
Demystified
By: Silence Dogood (proud patriot and Lionel
train aficionado)
Ever wonder how the wonder of Lionel works? What does a battery, a magnet, and a
paperclip have in common with your favorite Lionel engine?
You put together your Lionel track. You connect up your power transformer. You put your Engine on the track. You plug your transformer into the wall and
Bingo! Your train goes around and around
as fast or slow as you want. How in the
world does it do this?
I will explain to you in the simplest terms how this works
and give you an experiment to do to help you to understand. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, or
an electrical engineer to understand how a basic electric motor works. You can work on your PHD in physics
later. For now, let’s figure out what
makes the engine go round. This Fun
experiment will show you simply you how Lionel does it.
First for the boring part.
Picture yourself in school getting a lecture from your most dreaded
teacher. Scientists learned over a
hundred years ago that electricity could be made by spinning a magnet in a coil
of wire. They called this a
generator. At that same time they
learned that if they took that same coil of wire and put electricity through
the wire that it would cause it to spin.
They called this a motor. Both
work the same way. You only have to
decide if you want to make electricity, or use the electricity to create
motion.
Now that I have successfully put you all to sleep now for
the fun part. You will need to get your
parents help with this. It’s not
dangerous, but it is always a good idea to talk with them before working with
tools.
First watch this short video
Gather your materials, and build your first motor.
What you just built is not that much different than what
Lionel has been doing for a hundred years to make their trains go round.
Science Rocks……
Silence