Faraday’s Law with Flashlights

Faraday’s Law states that “any change in the magnetic environment of a coil of wire will cause a voltage to be “induced” in the coil” and energy will be created.

In this lab we applied this to flashlights that are shaken to get power. Flashlights like this are built with magnets that shake when the flashlight goes up against a coiled wire and generate energy in the form of light. The quicker the flashlight is shaken, the quicker the light is created.

Professor Vae showed another form of Faraday’s idea which was the Tesla Coil. The Tesla Coil is a high frequency air-core transformer. It was created by Nikola Tesla to “produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity”. Tesla used his invention in experiments with electrical lighting, x-ray generation, and electrotherapy to name a few. The transformers are similar to the flashlight, but much more complex.

Sources:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/farlaw.html

http://www.teslasociety.com/teslacoil.htm

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