Posted by Kromey at 12:41am Mar 12 '13Electromagnet: Take a copper wire, coil it, run a current through it. Bam! Magnet!
Add a ferromagnetic (e.g. iron) core, and it greatly increases the strength of the magnetic field.
But, what if you used a magnetic core? I.e. wrapped the copper wire around a permanent magnet, and then ran a current through it? Assuming you're smart enough to coil the wire so as to not put its field opposite that of the permanent magnet's, how would this "hybrid" magnet compare (assuming one controls for current and number of coils, of course)?
Obviously there'd still be a magnetic field when this one was turned "off"; I'm toying with the idea of making my own mag-lock, and actually this "residual" magnetic field in the "off" state would make a convenient latch, as opposed to a lock when it's "on". No idea if I'd actually make one strong enough, but it couldn't hurt to try.
Add a ferromagnetic (e.g. iron) core, and it greatly increases the strength of the magnetic field.
But, what if you used a magnetic core? I.e. wrapped the copper wire around a permanent magnet, and then ran a current through it? Assuming you're smart enough to coil the wire so as to not put its field opposite that of the permanent magnet's, how would this "hybrid" magnet compare (assuming one controls for current and number of coils, of course)?
Obviously there'd still be a magnetic field when this one was turned "off"; I'm toying with the idea of making my own mag-lock, and actually this "residual" magnetic field in the "off" state would make a convenient latch, as opposed to a lock when it's "on". No idea if I'd actually make one strong enough, but it couldn't hurt to try.