How to Use Magnets to Create Energy

Magnets are pieces of material that generate a magnetic field, with a positive and a negative pole. They are at the heart of many pieces of technology, including hard drives and credit cards, where the magnets record information by moving small molecules around. Magnets can also create electrical energy. Using the principle of induction, a spinning magnet can create an alternating current in a coil of wire. This energy doesn't appear out of nowhere -- there must be kinetic energy spinning the magnet -- but magnets create electrical energy that can be transmitted and used to do work.

• 1

  Wrap conductive wire -- most often made out of copper -- tightly around a cylinder or drum to create a coil. The more wire wrapped this way, the more energy the coil will produce.

• 2

  Mount a magnet on a rotating axle that allows it to spin end-over-end.

• 3

  Set the magnet up near the coil.

• 4

  Find the poles of the magnetic field by scattering iron filings around the magnet. Orient the wire coil so that, as the magnet spins, both poles pass it closely.

• 5

  Attach a handle or a drive belt to the axle on which the magnet is mounted and use it to spin the magnet around. Induction occurs when a coil moves through a magnetic field, with the positive pole creating a positive current and the negative pole creating a negative one. Together, this is alternating current (or AC) energy. Spinning the magnet is easier than spinning the coil, since the coil must be wired into another device to store or use the energy produced.

• 6

  Screw in the two ends of the wire to the positive and negative terminals of a battery or an electrical device, such as a light socket. As the magnet spins, it will induce an electric current that will travel down these wires to the device.