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| Three magnetically sensitive components attempt to
align themselves with "north", but in so doing, change what north means to
the others. |
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| This work started as a way of explaining
Lenz's law to my engineering students. The wire loops create magnetic
fields and are always moving to cancel them out, but the commutator at the top
continually flips the direction of current so the turning goes on forever. |
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| I suspended a bar magnet in the center to help visualize the field
orientation, not knowing it would create a chaotic interaction with the other
two coils.
Click here for video. |
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