Build 001In progress

Make the needle move

A magnet, a coil of wire, and a multimeter. Watching motion turn into electricity before we build anything.

Blueprint illustration of a microcontroller wired to a small motor

Before we start

Electricity happens when electrons move. How do you think we might get electrons to move with the materials we have here?

The goal

Build a gut feeling for what electricity actually is — before we ever close a circuit.

How we'll do it

  1. 01Wind a coil of wire — a few dozen turns is plenty.
  2. 02Strip the ends and connect them to the multimeter probes.
  3. 03Move the magnet in and out of the coil, and watch the needle.
  4. 04Ask: what made it move? What changes the size or direction of the twitch?
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