Teaching Electricity & Magnetism

Unit 8: Teaching Electricity & Magnetism

Students will, using an electrophorus, a Leyden jar, and a capacitance meter, demonstrate that the Leyden jar is a capacitor.
Students will, using aluminum foil and suitable dielectrics, determine what characteristics of a capacitor determine its capacitance.
Students will, using a capacitance meter and a variety of capacitors, work out the relationship for summed capacitance in both series and parallel configurations.
Students will work out the definition for capacitance (e.g., C = Q/V).
Students will conduct electric field mapping by using an Excel contour plot to find equipotential lines.

Students will, using various electrodes, generate and measure voltages using chemical (battery) and thermal means (Seebeck effect).
Students will, using suitable arrangements of meters and resistors, establish Ohm’s law.
Students will, using small batteries and low resistance circuit components, show that Ohm’s law does not always predict current accurately given a limited current supply.
Students will, using Ohm’s law, determine the internal resistance of a battery, and distinguish between both electromotive force and voltage (e.g. E - IR = V).
Students will distinguish between V = IR (as applied to a circuit only) and E = IR (as applied to both circuit and battery.
Students will, using a combination of batteries in series and parallel circuits, establish rules for adding currents and voltages.
Students will experimentally establish resistance laws for series and parallel circuits.
Students will establish principles of conservation of energy and charge for resistor-based circuit. Hint: Knowing V = IR, write laws in terms of voltage and charge only.
Students will, using resistance spools and a resistance meter, determine those factors that affect resistance (length, diameter, and resistivity).
Student will, using a light bulb in a circuit with appropriate meters, determine the effect of temperature on resistance; e.g., establish R = Ro(1+aT).

Students will, using one or more neodymium magnets and force sensor, determine the relationship between force and distance for a small magnet (e.g., Coulomb’s law of magnetism).
Students will, using a variety of magnets and a multitude of small compasses, map magnetic fields around a variety of permanent magnetic sources.
Student will, using a magnet and a magnetic field strength detector, determine what effects if any applied temperature and vibration have upon the strength of the field of a magnet.
Students will, using a neodymium magnet and a paperclip floating above a restraining string, determine if it is possible to magnetically shield objects.

Students will, using a coil and compass, create and calibrate a simple galvanometer.
Students will, using a galvanic balance, determine the relationship of force existing between two parallel wires carrying current in opposite directions (e.g. F = IlB).
Students will, using interfacing solenoids and ohmmeters, establish the transformer relationship (e.g., N1/N2 = V2/V1).
Student will, using a current carrying Slinky, determine what factors affect the magnetic field of a solenoid.
Students will, using a coil and appropriate sensors, determine the relationship between induced current and rate of change of flux in the system.
Students will, using a current carrying wire and appropriate meters, determine the relationship between the current and the magnetic field strength of an electromagnet.
Students will, using a turning loop of wire in a magnetic field, determine the relationship between phase loop orientation and current generation in a step-wise fashion.