Christopher Chiaverina, Column Editor 4111 Connecticut Trail, Crystal Lake, IL 60012 fizzforfun@aol.

com

ittle

Gems

The Simplest Generator from the Simplest Motor? Robert Beck Clark, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT; rbc@aip.org
his past December we were delighted to read about The Simplest Motor?1 that was inspired by the Stray Cats and reported by Chris Chiaverina in this column of The Physics Teacher. We soon found economical sources2 of neodymium disk magnets and have enjoyed the opportunity to share many of these simple imaginative homopolar motors with colleagues at AAPT section meetings, at state science teachers meetings, and at family and neighborhood gatherings. The reaction is universally one of amazement. One evening a neighbor, who is a retired chemical engineer, was visiting in our home and picked up a sample motor sitting on the table. As he experimented with the little motor, he casually asked, If I remember from my physics class, it should also work as a generator, shouldnt it?3 I was somewhat taken aback at not having thought about it before but realized that he was certainly correct. Over the next couple of days, it occurred to me that if we took the disk magnet on the nail and placed it in the adjustable chuck of a Dremel tool, we might be able to spin it fast enough to produce a measurable emf between the outer edge of the spinning disk magnet and the shaft of the nail. The accompanying picture illustrates the procedure. One lesson we learned early in the process is that replacing the solid disk magnet with a disk magnet with a hole in the center, aptly known as a ring magnet, enables one to slide the magnet onto the shaft of the nail securely and saves the investigator from chasing flying magnets all over the room. Economical neodymium ring magnets are also available from Force Field as identified in Ref. 2 (e.g. NdFeB Ring, 3/8 in [o.d.] x 1/8 in [i.d.] x 1/8 in). An excellent discussion of the physics of the unipolar generator is given by Berg and Carroll.4 The emf is expected to be described by the expression V = ()Bwr2. It is satisfying that the qualitative behavior is as expected. If the magnet is inverted, the emf is reversed. If the rate of rotation is increased, the emf increases. The emf also depends on the distance from the contact touching the magnet to the axis of rotation. For the magnet and rotation
THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 44, February 2006

Photo of the homopolar generator.

rates I used, the emf measured was in tens of millivolts. It is also most humbling to realize that the basic idea of the homopolar generator was originally conceived by Faraday in 1831.5
Acknowledgment

The author expresses his appreciation to W. Scott Daniel for the accompanying photograph.
References 1. Christopher Chiaverina, The simplest motor? Phys. Teach. 42, 553 (Dec. 2004). 2. National Imports, http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com and Force Field, http://www.wondermagnets.com. 3. Don Briggs (private communication). 4. Richard E. Berg and Carroll O. Alley, The unipolar generator: A demonstration of special relativity, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (2005); http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/ outreach/QOTW/arch11/q218unipolar.pdf. 5. M. Faraday, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 122, 125-194 (1832); 143, 25-43 (1852). PACS code: 41.20.-q

DOI: 10.1119/1.2165447

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