Electricity and Magnetism

Driven RLC Circuit

rlc circuit

What It Shows

The amplitudes and relative phases of the voltages across the individual elements of a series RLC circuit varies with the frequency of the driving voltage. The voltages of the three elements plus the driver...

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OHP RLC Circuit

What It Shows

The current in a circuit consisting of a capacitor, inductor, and resistor will oscillate back and forth as the capacitor charges and discharges.

How It Works

The circuit layout is shown in the figure below. Initially the knife switch links the capacitor to the battery. Switching to complete the LRC circuit allows the capacitor to discharge. The current I in the circuit increases, as does the magneic field B inside the inductor. When the capacitor charge is zero, I and B are a maximum (the energy of the circuit is now stored in the inductor). As the...

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Spectrum Piano

The visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is represented by less than an octave of the keys; UV, IR, and microwaves are also indicated.

What it shows:

The keys of a piano are used to represent the electromagnetic spectrum, illustrating the narrow range of frequencies that constitute the portion visible to human sight.

How it works:

An old piano 1 with its center octave of keys (C4=261.6Hz to C5=523.3Hz) colored for the visible spectrum (the seven colors spread to...

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Hertz Resonator

What it shows:

The transmission and detection of radio frequency electromagnetic radiation by use of LC oscillator circuits recreates the discovery by Hertz of a method to generate and detect electromagnetic waves.

How it works:

The core of the apparatus (figure 1) is a series LRC circuit (the R provided by the circuit resistance). The inductor L is a 1m diameter loop made of 1 inch copper tubing which also serves as the radiating antenna. A transformer 1 supplies 15kV to charge up the capacitor 2 until...

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Electromagnetic Spear

What it shows:

Static 3-D stylized model of an electromagnetic wave, with two sets of sinusoidal fins at 90° representing the E and B fields.

How it works:

The wave packet model consists of a wooden spine with E and B fins of 1cm wooden dowels. A plastic arrowhead gives the spine a direction.

Figure 1. The Spear

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Hall Effect

What it shows:

When a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to a conductor carrying current, a potential difference is observed between points on opposite sides of the conductor. This happens because the magnetic field deflects the moving electrons (Lorentz force) to the edge of the conductor and the altered charge distribution generates a transverse electric field.

How it works:

The conductor is a small bar (11mm × 2mm × 2mm) of germanium (p-type?). Current (18 mA) is made to flow down the length of the bar by a 3 volt potential...

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Magnetic Bubbles

What it shows:

A thin wafer of Ferromagnetic Garnet reveals its magnetic domain alignment as light and dark serpentine patterns when viewed between crossed Polarizers. These domains can be flipped by an external magnetic field, changing the pattern structure.

How it works:

The magnetic bubble apparatus consists 1 of a thin (8-12μm) single crystal film of Ferromagnetic Garnet (FMG) sandwiched between a pair of crossed Polaroids. The FMG crystals are magnetically anisotropic, that is, they have a strong tendency to orient...

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The Barkhausen Effect

What it shows:

The magnetization of a ferromagnetic substance occurs in little jumps as the magnetic moments of small bunches of atoms, called domains, align themselves with the external field. We can actually "hear" the switching of these domains by amplifying the currents induced in a coil that surround the ferromagnetic material.

How it works:

We use two 10mH coils mounted back-to-back to cut out AC noise. The samples, listed in Fig.1 are in wire form, about 3-5cm in length and pushed through corks so they can sit...

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Diamagnetic Levitation

What it shows:

Stable levitation of one magnet by another is usually prohibited by Earnshaw's Theorem, but the introduction of diamagnetic material at special locations can stabilize such levitation. The demonstration is a replica of an experiment described by M.D. Simon and A.K. Geim1 and is pictured in the photograph. The illustration is from their paper.

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