How to Make the World's Simplest Motor: SciShow Experiments

Hank builds a simple electric motor just powerful enough to make a small screw spin, but also strong enough to blow your mind.

References

[zyaicob]

so, ur tellin me nobody noticed the duracell product placement?

[ltericdavis]

A little refresher is never bad. Something to jog the old memories.

[AmaraTheBarbarian]

Maybe someone can help me clear up a misconception I may have or maybe hank was wrong, but probably I am. Shouldn't the current flow in the other direction 2:30 since electrons are negative and trying to balance by reaching positive atoms?

[teresaellis]

Totally going to show my son. He is always trying to build crazy things with motors and showing off his science stuff to people. Now he will have another simple science experiment to show off. :D He will be so happy. I hope you have more SciShow experiments. I'm off to find out!

[seth]

You got the flow backwards! The electrons go from negative to positive.

[JcubeJcube]

Two of my teachers now have used your videos fo explain concepts. This is a revolution in teaching and communicating ideas! Go Hank and the SciShow team!

[jacobgolden]

Hank, I do gotta say that I loved the joke in the beginning. That was large enough to blow my mind. My mind has been blown by a battery, a magnet, a screw and copper. Even though I am now at university and work with systems much more complex than this, the simplicity is just beautiful.

Best Wishes,
Golden

[AlexHaig]

The pharaoh's serpent experiment is amazing. Try that one!

[AlfredoRius]

Just something that might slipped out... Electric motors in toys (DC motors) DO have permanent magnets, the ones that don't are AC electric motors which are used on other applications such as blenders, vacuum cleaner, and washing machines.
I really like your show and I'd love to see a video about acoustics, such as acoustic levitation or other interesting stuff :)

[Muffysb]

I'm long out of high school, but I had no interest in the science classes, so I only learned enough to pass the tests and then forgot it all. Hank's "high school physics" lessons are fascinating to me...and I have a feeling that if he'd been my science teacher I would know a lot more about physics today!

[brianlyngvig]

As a 7-9 grade science teacher I've been looking for this explanation! thank you! :)

[ProfessorDextive]

You and your sci show buddies should have a competition on who can make the biggest volcano. Not only the size but the height of the blast from any type of chemical reaction

[hectorbector]

2 things:
1: Moving magnets can create current in metal (but that isn't important when it comes to computers.)
2: Some computer data storage (the hard drive, floppy disks etc.) change the magnetic charge of disks to store the info. They even use a magnet to store and erase the data. If you bring a separate magnet too close it can corrupt the data.

[VeraciousTranslator]

keep yappin'...its soothing to hear knowledge

[MrDanrobbins]

Nice one!! Another good one would be to heat a metal container for a short period then seal it and watch it semi-implod. At school my teacher used a very well cleaned car oil container - Very cool demonstration of the effect of heat on air pressure!!

[TainakaRicchan]

In our collection of experiments at our Physics Institute we have a even simpler (in terms of components) electric motor, with only the wire, the magnet and the battery:
The battery is dented in on the plus pole, and the wire is very stiff and as a spiraled shape, so that it goes around the battery, is balanced in the dent at the positive pole, and touches the magnet on the negative pole.
This way the wire doesn't even have to be held to spin all on it's own.

[TaylorKingKing]

If you have never heard of Edward Grey i would love to see a "cold electricity" episode.

Also, thank all of ya'll for doing this youtube channel and helping to educate the world.

[Vezril]

You're actually correct. But for a long time physicists and engineers thought electrons flow from positive to the negative terminal. This is called the "Conventional Current Flow". But in reality it was discovered that it's the opposite, electrons from flow the Negative to the Positive terminal, this is called "Electron Current Flow". Ultimately it doesn't matter, when calculating things we just add negatives in the current calculations.

[dukescottie]

Amazing how much advanced technology went into this simple motor... the battery alone would have been mind blowing not too long ago

[overseastom]

Dude, i loved you as Scarecrow, in Nolan's recent Batman movies!! I had no idea you did science too. You... are awesome.