- #1
cosmicomic
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Hi, I am a high school student and I'm planning on entering a regional science fair with an experiment involving electrolytes, magnets, and electric currents. However, I don't understand electromagnetism well enough to fully understand everything that would be going on in the experiment, and as a result, I can't really predict results or make a hypothesis. In fact, I don't know what I would be measuring besides "what would happen". I've spoken to both the physics teachers at my school and they weren't 100% sure what would happen, either, so I thought I'd ask here.
Suppose you had a container with an ionic solution in it, and it was hooked up to a battery so that it had a current flowing through it. What would happen if you dropped a magnet into the electrolyte?
I've done some research on magnetic fields, and I know that a magnet has a magnetic field with north pole and a south pole, and a wire with a current running through it also has a magnetic field. In the context of the experiment, how would these fields interact? I was thinking that the electrolyte might physically move, since the magnetic field would become distorted and probably have some influence on the ions in the solution.
Also, I believe the magnet falling through the water would make a moving magnetic field, and that would produce a current in the electrolyte (induction). However, the electrolyte would already have a current flowing through it from the battery. So there would be a current from the magnet and the current from the battery. How would those currents affect each other?
Thanks!
cosmicomic
Suppose you had a container with an ionic solution in it, and it was hooked up to a battery so that it had a current flowing through it. What would happen if you dropped a magnet into the electrolyte?
I've done some research on magnetic fields, and I know that a magnet has a magnetic field with north pole and a south pole, and a wire with a current running through it also has a magnetic field. In the context of the experiment, how would these fields interact? I was thinking that the electrolyte might physically move, since the magnetic field would become distorted and probably have some influence on the ions in the solution.
Also, I believe the magnet falling through the water would make a moving magnetic field, and that would produce a current in the electrolyte (induction). However, the electrolyte would already have a current flowing through it from the battery. So there would be a current from the magnet and the current from the battery. How would those currents affect each other?
Thanks!
cosmicomic