Objective:

In experiment 4 we applied the concept learned in Faraday’s Law of Induction “[which] describes how an electric current produces a magnetic field and, conversely, how a changing magnetic field generates an electric current in a conductor”[1] In this lab, the main piece of equipment will be a tube that resembles a flashlight and we will observe that as the magnet inside the tube is shaken faster, the greater voltage there will be.

Procedure

1. Obtain an NXT Robot, a USB wire, differential voltage measure, and the shaker.
2. Ensure that the USB and the differential voltage measure are both connected to the NXT Robot before continuing. The voltage measure should be connected to the bottom port of the NXT and the USB to the top port.
3. Connect the USB to the desktop and launch Labview.
4. Open Excel and locate the file test2.lvm in all files. This will guide you in organizing all of the data that you collect on Labview.
5. Do a test run. It is important to understand how the software collects data and that the shaker is working correctly. When this is done move onto Step 6.
6. Begin by deciding how many times each lab partner will take turns shaking the tube; you want your results to vary when graphed so it will help to figure this out ahead of time. Each person will have a role either: tracking time, counting shakes, or shaking the tube. Alternate roles as you move through the procedure.
7. Shake the tube approximately 6-8 times depending on how many group members you have for intervals of 30 seconds.
8. Open the Excel sheet to view the data collected for each second and calculate the Sum of Squares after each Trial.
9. Plot the Number of shakes and Sum of Squares on a scatter plot labeled as “voltage”. Be sure to insert a trendline.

 

Results 

For this experiment I had two lab partners and given the time constraints, we chose to do six trials, two each. The first person shook the magnet faster while the second went at a medium speed and I went at a low speed. You will see here that two of our recordings for number of shakes come in at 77 shakes in 30 seconds.

We chose to keep this data despite its repetition to represent our true recordings. Perhaps, if we had chose to omit this and try it again it may have resulted in a more interesting graph. According to another classmate, if she shook the magnet fast enough, the flashlight would light up.

Conclusion

Since the running of this experiment was relatively simple with few components performing it was rather simple. Where difficulties came in were in the beginning, locating the file on which we would store the data and ensuring the Excel saved the data before closing the program to open Labview. We discovered how technology in this case works as an advantage and a disadvantage, especially because we had to count the number of shakes which certainly resulted in a degree of error in the results. Had we been able to do this differently, I would somehow make it so that we would not have to count the number of shakes and also we could observe the correlation between voltage and the amount of human work put it as opposed to phrasing it as “number of shakes”. Overall the lab design is interesting and could become more accurate with replication.

 

Sources

1. https://www.livescience.com/53509-faradays-law-induction.html
2. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/faraday-electromagnetic-theory-light/