Suggested Experiments

Experimenting with your motor could be a lot of fun. There are many experiments that can make an outstanding science project.

In most of your experiments you will need to record your measurements and create tables and graphs for your project. Stan made over 3000 measurements in his science project!

Simple experiments for beginners

• Compare the performance of the motor with 2 and 4 magnets on the rotor. With the 2 magnet rotor you may face a “dead spot” problem. (“Dead spot” is a position where the rotor stops and cannot restart without a push).
• If you are building a reed switch motor you may add a variable speed control to it. The speed control unit is available in our store.
• You may experiment with different electromagnets (different lengths or gauges of wire on the coil). Wire comparison kit provides 25 and 29 gauge wires in addition to 27 gauge included with every motor kit.
• Experiment how different sensor positions affect motor parameters. You may find that changing position of the reed switch or other sensor can change the direction of rotation.
• You may compare any of the brushless motors shown on our web site to the conventional motor. It could be a simple Beakman’s motor – we provide a kit to build one. Or you may choose one of the industrial brushless or conventional motors that we also offer in our store.
• You may experiment with stronger rare earth magnets.

More complex experiments

• Measure the motor speed in RPM (revolutions per minute) – see Speed Measurement for information on easy and accurate way to do it.
• Analyze the conversion of electrical energy into mechanical and back to electrical power by attaching a generator.
• Experiment with solar energy. Most of our kits may be connected to Solar Power Module.
• If you built a motor with optical control you may experiment with different widths of the disk blades. Trim them with scissors to decrease the width or glue small pieces of opaque material to make them wider.

Advanced experiments

• Compare motors with different principles of operation. You may have different motors side by side or just use kit #8 (if you want to switch between different motors quickly – kit #9 or kit #10 is the best option).
• Calculate motor torque – the twisting force of a motor. See Torque and Efficiency Calculation for more information.
• Compare speed and torque on different voltage settings (1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, etc.)
• Compare speed and torque on different loads. You may use an electric generator or a propeller as a load. With the generator you may examine how motor speed and torque change generator output power.
• Create power and efficiency curves for your motor.

New! Watch Ideas for Experiments with Simple Electric Motors video on our YouTube channel.