KS3 Science

Electromagnets 2

Name : _____________________________________
Class : ______________________________________
Teacher : ___________________________________

In this topic you will learn about:

• The interactions of magnets and how they can be used to evidence
magnetic fields.
• How to make an electromagnet, why it works and how to demonstrate
it’s strength based on certain variables.
Practical Skills:
• Make predictions and decide variables
• Draw conclusions
• Create models
This topic has links to:
• Poles of magnets and magnetic fields – GCSE
• Electromagnets - GCSE
Maths in science:
• Graph drawing skills
• Converting units and interpreting data

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Contents: Page no:
Lesson:
1: Permanent Magnets – Forces & Fields 4
2: Using Ideas About Magnetic Fields 8
3: Investigating Electromagnetism - Planning 11
4: Investigating Electromagnetism - Practical 16
5: Using Electromagnets 23

Week commencing 8th March - 29th March

4 lesson per week

Booklet expectations:
The booklet is your responsibility to look after and keep tidy.
You are expected to bring the booklet to every lesson with that class
teacher.
Any corrections / self assessment to be completed in green pen, as
indicated by your class teacher – Or when you see the ‘feedback &
assessment’ logo
Any response to marking and literacy codes to be completed in green
pen.
Any diagrams are to be drawn in pencil, graphs using a pencil and
ruler etc.
All activities are to be completed, including homework, to the best of
your ability, and corrected where needed.
When reading through the notes, you are expected to highlight any
words you do not understand, then write their definitions on the
glossary pages at the back of the booklet.

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Glossary 3

Key term Definition

Poles End of a magnet, either North or South

Attract Pull towards, magents attract any magnetic material close by.

Repel Push away, e.g. North of a magnet repels North.

Field The area affected by a magnet

Compass Tool used to show the direction of a magnetic field

A cylindrical coil of wire acting as a magnet when current flows

Solenoid through it.
Piece of iron inside an electromagnet which makes the field
Core stronger
Type of temporary magnet created when a current passes
electromagnet
through it.

Armature Pole in an electromagnet or moving part of a solenoid

Circuit
Device that breaks a circuit when current is too high
breaker

Contact Point at which a circuit is made e.g. a switch

Permanent A magnet that cannot be turned off.

Temporary A magnet that can be switched on or off

Alignment When 2 separate entities point in the same direction.

Lesson 1: Permanent Magnets – Forces & Fields 4
In and On: Make a list of as many different things that use magnets.

Learning outcomes:
Know the laws of magnetic attraction.
Explain how a magnetic field can be represented by field lines.
Apply ideas about attraction to magnetic materials placed in a field.

Task 1: complete the table below to show which materials are magnetic and which are not.
Material Magnetic Non magnetic

Task 2:
Complete the sentences:
Opposite poles of a magnet _____________
Like poles _____________

Add onto the magnets below the possible poles of each magnet and the missing
arrows for the last part of the diagram.

S N
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 Q1. The drawing shows a toy shark. Magnets X and Y make the shark ‘float’ 7
above the plastic base.

(a) On magnet X, write the letters N and S to label the poles of the magnet.
1 mark
(b) (i)
Choose a word from the list below to complete the sentence.
attract cancel repel
The toy shark ‘floats’ because the magnets ....................................... each
other.
1 mark
(ii) Sophie pressed down on the tail of the shark with her finger.
What happened to the shark when she removed her finger?
.............................................................................................................
1 mark

Q2. Hannah has three rods (A, B and C) made from different metals. One rod is a magnet; one
is made of copper; and one is made of iron. She does not know which rod is which.

Each rod has a dot at one end.

(a) Hannah uses only a bar magnet to identify each rod. She puts each pole of the bar magnet next to
the dotted end of each rod.
Complete Hannah’s observations in the table below. Write if each rod is copper, iron or a magnet.
test observations type of rod
attract

Rod A is
attract
................................. .
nothing happens

Rod B is
.................................
................................. .
attract

Rod C is
.................................
................................. . 3 marks
 Lesson 2 – Using Ideas About Magnetic Fields 8

In and On: How could you use a compass to navigate yourself to the magnetic north pole?
.

Learning Outcomes:
Describe key features of the Earth’s magnetic field.
Explain why fields vary in strength.
Explore the fields around combinations of magnets.

What is domain theory?

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How can you make an iron nail become magnetic in the

classroom?
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Why does this method make the nail temporarily magnetic?

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You’re stranded on a desert island and before you set sail, you need
to know which direction to head in your boat. Explain how the
experiment below could help you?
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 Additional Notes 9
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Magnetic field lines demonstration.

Using the textbook to help you, produce two diagrams to show the pattern created
by iron filings around (i) attracting and (ii) repeling magnets.
Challenge: add direction arrows to the field lines.
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Based on what
you have already
learned, what
would you
PREDICT the field
lines to look like.
Sketch your ideas
on the diagram.
 11

Lesson 3 – Investigating Electromagnetism - Planning

In and On: Complete the sentences using one of the following
words to help explain your phrase.

Learning objectives
Describe what an electromagnet is.
Investigate the factors affecting the strength of electromagnets.

Teacher Demonstration:
What will happen when
an electric current flows
through the wire?

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Sketch the
field lines on
this diagram!
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Sketch the
field lines on
this diagram!
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 Lesson 4 – Investigating Electromagnetism - Practical
16
Hypothesis: _______________________________________________
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Variables:
Independent Variable: ______________________________________
Dependent Variable: ________________________________________
Control Variable(s): _________________________________________

Equipment list

1 5

2 6

3 7

4 8

Label the diagram below

 Method 17

This should be bullet points, short, to the point instructions that

anyone with your equipment and this method could follow.

Hazard Risk Prevention

Overheating wire Burning skin
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Results: Record your results in the table below.
Number of Coils Number of Paperclips
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Conclusion:______________________________________________
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Lesson 5 – Using Electromagnets 23

In and On: Which of these electromagnets will be more powerful? How can you tell?

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A B C
Learning Outcomes:
Describe different applications of magnets and electromagnets.
Compare and contrast the use of magnets and electromagnets in different applications.
Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using electromagnets.

Missing words for diagram

• Armature
• Cell
• Contacts
• Electromagnet
• Bell
• Pivot switch
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Electricity is the movement of
________ in a wire in ____
__________ .
When the electricity is on, it makes
________ of a material line up.

Advantages of electromagnets
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Disadvantages of electromagnets
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home armature backwards circuit coil of wire current
electromagnet gap gong good moved sound switch touch

Use words from the box above to fill the gaps in these sentences. You can use some words more than once.

When someone presses the _______________ , an electric current can flow around the

_______________. When the current flows in the _______________ ______

_______________ it becomes a magnet and attracts the _______________ .

When the armature moves towards the ______________________ the end of it hits the

_______________ and makes a _______________ . Now that the armature has

_______________, there is a _______________ between the contacts. This means that the

_______________ cannot flow around the circuit. The ______________________ stops

being magnetic, and the _______________ springs back again.

When the armature has sprung back the contacts _______________ . A current can flow again,

so the electromagnet attracts the_______________ again. The armature keeps springing

_______________and forwards as long as someone has their finger on the switch.

Give 3 uses of electromagnets and why they are useful in your example. 25

1. __________________________________
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2. __________________________________
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3. __________________________________
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Give the three ways to make an electromagnet stronger.

1.

2.

3.

Additional Notes
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Revision Notes
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Revision Diagrams
L1 Answers
Computers store data in magnetic disks and CDs.
Electromagnets are used to lift heavy objects
Doctors can see the inside of our bodies thanks to magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI)
Maglev trains ‘float’ on top of tracks
The Earth has a magnetic field which we can use for navigation
Only iron (Fe), nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) are magnetic
Poles – part of the magnet with strongest magnetic force.
The poles are called North pole and South pole

Two like poles repel

Two Opposite poles attract
M1(a)

b(i) repel
(ii) it moved upwards or
returned to its original position
accept ‘it would move up and
down’
2 iron nothing happens
accept ‘nothing’ or ‘no force’ or ‘it does not attract or repel’
both answers are required for the mark
Copper repel a magnet
accept ‘move apart’
both answers are required for the mark
L2 Answers
Inside a magnet there are small regions called domains.
The direction of these domains is the same.
If a metal is not a magnet the domains have different directions.
The arrows point towards the north pole in a magnet.

Stroke a piece of iron repeatedly with a magnet

1. always stroke with the same pole
2. always stroke in the same direction
Stroking the needle will make the domains line up in one direction,
making the iron into a magnet.
L3 Answers
If you pass electricity through a coil of wire, the coil acts like a magnet –
there is a magnetic field around it.
If you put a magnetic material such as an iron nail into the centre, the
magnetic field gets even stronger.
You have made a magnet using electricity – we call it an electromagnet.
Increasing or
including any of
the three C’s will
increase the
strength of your
electromagnet.
Electricity is the
movement of
electrons in a wire
in one direction.
When the
electricity is on, it
makes domains of
a material line up.
They are non-
permanent
magnets because
magnetism can be
turned on or off.
A bar magnet is a
permanent
magnet because
the magnetism is
always there.
The more / less coils around the nail, the stronger / weaker the
electromagnet.
L4 Answers

Method: Wrap the wire around the iron nail.

Connect a crocodile clip to each end of the wire
Plug the other end of the wires into the Power pack.
Turn the Power Pack on.
M1.a(i) the number of turns or coils of wire
accept ‘the coils’
accept ‘the turns’

(ii) the current or the length or thickness or material of the wire or

coil
accept ‘the voltage or power’ accept ‘the wire’ or the
circumference of the coil. The size of paper-clips
(iii) any one from, count the paper-clips picked up
accept ‘number of paper-clips’; or measure their mass
accept ‘weigh them’; ‘the more clips the stronger the magnet’;
‘measure the distance at which a magnet will just pick up
a paper-clip’
(b) any one from
• an inaccuracy in results
accept a description of inaccuracies, such as
‘she counted the number of clips wrongly’
• a problem with the data or results
• a problem with the method

(ii) any one from

• with bigger paper-clips she might miss the precise

point at
which the electromagnet stopped picking up paper-
clips

• the smaller paper-clips might help to identify the

precise point
at which the electromagnet stopped picking up
paper-clips
Electromagnets are very useful because unlike normal (permanent)
magnets, they can easily be turned on and off.
The crane has a large electromagnet, which is turned on to lift scrap
iron and steel, and turned off to drop it

In an electric bell, the electromagnet attracts the arm of the clanger,

making it strike the bell.
In doing so, it breaks the circuit, which turns off the electromagnet.
The clanger goes back to its original position.
This completes the circuit again, turning the electromagnet back on,
which attracts the clanger, which strikes the bell.
This goes on and on and so the bell rings and rings until you take your
finger off the switch.