CP2 Physics :Appliances with electromagnets
What Home Appliances Use Electromagnets?
Household Appliances That Contain Magnets
- While the futuristic-sounding term "electromagnet" might conjure up images of extremely advanced, sophisticated technology that you would never expect to find lying around the house, manufacturers actually use electromagnets in a number of common home appliances. Unlike permanent magnets, electromagnets only display magnetic properties when electrical currents pass through them. Learn more about electromagnets and how different appliances utilize them.
- If it were not for an electromagnet, each time you went to push down the tab or handle on your toaster, the bread would disappointingly pop right back up untoasted. As Drexel University's Geometric and Intelligent Computing Laboratory notes, when you push down a toaster tab on a functioning toaster, a piece of material wedges itself in between two electrical prongs, thereby completing a circuit. The resulting electrical current, in addition to producing heat, activates a small electromagnet. This electromagnet attracts a metallic section on the back of the tab, holding it, and the wire bread-clamps that hold the bread, in place. Once the toaster heats the bread for the time you set it for, it will disrupt the electrical current and deactivate the electromagnet, allowing the tab and clamps to pop back up.
- Many computer printers rely on electromagnets to power their motors, which in turn power the printer's moving parts. As Solarbotics notes, these motors are known as stepper motors, and many other commonelectronics, such as fax machines and hard disk drives, also make use of them. A single stepper motor contains several stationary electromagnets known collectively as the stator, which surrounds a rotating, permanent magnet, known as the rotor. According to Images Scientific Instruments, to generate power, the motor conducts an electrical current into only one electromagnet at a time. As each electromagnet activates, it pulls the rotor towards it.
- Unlike the above types of home appliances, microwave ovens do not utilize small electromagnets for momentarily attracting sections of metal. Instead, the entire microwave oven unit itself acts like a giant electromagnet to create a controlled zone of electromagnetism inside of its cooking chamber. As the University of Colorado Department of Physics notes, microwave ovens generate electromagnetic waves known as microwaves, which cause water molecules to move or vibrate. As the moving water molecules rub up against other molecules in the food or drink you are heating, they produce friction. This friction in turn generates heat and warms your items.
Household Appliances That Contain Magnets
- A kitchen would be difficult to run without the use of magnets.
A large number of household appliances use magnets. Electromagnets are magnets that can be activated and deactivated through the application of electricity. This is useful in a number of common household items. People use them in their everyday lives, such as the magnets installed into shower curtains in order to easily stick them to the wall. A similar function is used in refrigerators.
- Your refrigerator uses a magnetic strip in its door. All refrigerators must seal to lock out the warm air and keep cool air inside. A magnet is what allows these seals to be so effective. The magnetic strip runs the length and width of the refrigerator and freezer door.
- A solenoid is an electromagnetic coil. This is a piece of metal with a wire around it. When electricity is applied to the wire, the metal becomes magnetic. Many dishwashers have a timer activated magnetic solenoid underneath them. When the time is up, according to Repair Clinic.com, the solenoid opens a drain valve that drains the dishwasher.
- All cathode ray tube, or CRT, televisions have magnets inside them. According to the How Magnets Work website, the image on any CRT TV is produced as a stream of electrons from an electron ray gun in the back of your TV. This stream is directed down a tube, called the cathode ray tube. The electrons travel straight until they are affected by electromagnets, along the sides of the tube. The electromagnets direct the stream toward the corners, sides and middle of your TV screen, allowing you to see it as it appears.
Computers use magnets in several ways. First, CRT computerscreens are produced like television screens. The electromagnets bend the stream of electrons making it visible on a large screen. According to How Magnets Work, computer disks are coated with metal that stores and transmits electromagnetic signals in patterns. This is how the information is stored on a computer disk.
LCD and plasma screens for both televisions and computers have static liquid crystals or gas chambers and do not operate the same way. These new technologies are not affected by magnets in household objects the way that a CRT screen would be.
- You can tell how many magnets a doorbell contains simply by listening to the number of tones it produces. According to the Knox News website, doorbells also contain solenoids like dishwashers. The solenoid in a doorbell causes a spring-loaded piston to strike a bell. It happens twice, because as you release the button the magnet passes beneath the piston again causing it to strike. This is where the "ding dong" sound comes from. Doorbells that have more than one tone have more than one chime, piston and magnet.
- A kitchen would be difficult to run without the use of magnets.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar