Finished magnetometer drawing courtesy of IMAGE Poetry
From Students: Building a Magnetometer
Materials: for one magnetometer
- 2-liter label-free soda plastic soda bottle or clear tennis ball canister
- sand or small gravel
- 2 ft. of sewing thread
- 1 small bar magnet (2 +3 cm long)
- 1 index card (approx. 5 x 5 cm)
- 1 mirrored sequin or 1 small mirror (approx. 1 cm)
- 1 adjustable high-intensity lamp with clear bulb (not frosted) or laser pointer (do not direct into eyes)
- scissors
- 1 meter stick
- super glue and clear tape
- 1 inch piece of soda straw
Finished magnetometer drawing courtesy of IMAGE Poetry
Building instructions:
- Using a dry label-free 2-liter bottle, carefully cut off the top third of the bottle and save. At the end you will reattach top and bottom, so the edges should be as straight as possible. This step is not necessary if you use clear tennis ball canister.
- Pierce a small hole in the center of the cap.
- Fill the bottom section with sand or gravel.
- Cut the index card so that it fits inside the bottle (approx 5x5 cm).
- Glue the magnet to the center of the top edge of the card.
- Glue a 1-inch piece of soda straw to the top of the magnet.
- Glue the mirror spot or sequin to the front of the magnet.
- Pass the thread through the soda straw and tie it into a small triangle with 2-inch sides.
- Tie a 6-inch thread to the top of the triangle in #9 and thread it through the hole in the cap. Tape to outside of bottle temporarily.
- Put the bottle top and bottom together so that the 'sensor card' is free to swing with the mirror spot above the seam. (if you use the tennis ball canister you only need to put lid on canister.)
- Tape the bottle together. Adjust the length of the string holding the index card so that the card swings freely above the bottom. Glue the thread securely to the cap.
- Place the bottle on a level surface and point the lamp so that a reflected spot shows on a nearby wall about 2 meters away.
Collecting Data:
- Place the magnetometer and lamp on a level, stable surface in an undisturbed location. The magnetometer should be about 2 feet from a wall. Avoid other sources of a magnetic field such as other magnets, major electrical appliances, or heavy traffic. Moving electrical currents produce magnetic fields.
- Point the lamp so that the light reflects off the sequin or mirror onto the wall about 2 feet away. The clear light bulb should allow you to see a defined reflection of the filament as a bright spot.
- On white paper make a horizontal line 40 centimeters long. In the middle of the line place a small mark and label it zero (0). Make a scale by placing small tick marks every centimeter in each direction from zero. Mark measurements to the left as negative (e.g. +1, -2, -3, -4) and measurements to the right as positive.
- Tape the centimeter scale on the wall exactly opposite the magnetometer so that the bright reflected spot shines on the zero mark. (You can make some adjustments after the scale is up by moving the lamp.)
- Record the location of the bright spot every 15 or 30 minutes. Record the clock time and date. Recording should be made for several hours of each day every day.
- Graph the data for each day with the position on the vertical axis and the time of day on the horizontal axis. Keep and post graphs for each day and compare with Observatory and satellite data. Determine whether there is a Low, Weak, Strong, or Extreme magnetic storm in progress and submit to Students Observation Network.
