Daniel's Linear Induction Motor

Daniel and I built a Linear Induction Motor for a school science project from scratch and used it to accelerate a car, with various conductors at different temperatures. This type of motor is used accelerate some roller coasters and could be used to accelerate payloads into orbit or beyond.

More details on construction:
We used a 3 phase 220V power supply available in my laboratory. The motor consists of a line of electromagnets made by wrapping magnet wire (#16) around 3/4 inch bolts (non-stainless-steel) that were mounted to a wood board (1 foot x 4 ft). Each one of the 3 phases was wired in series to every 3rd coil, so alternating 1,2,3,1,2,3, etc., with 4 cycles. We used conventional wall switches for each phase, so the 3 switches must all be thrown to start the motor. We wired the electromagnets in series in order to reduce the current load. Even so, the motor can be switched on only for 5 seconds before the magnet wire heats up and starts burning off insulation. This is long enough however to accelerate the car, which consists of a piece of aluminum (best) or copper resting on an unshaped soap-box derby car. All this was done with stuff from OSH except for the magnet wire which was from McMaster-Carr.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Linear
• induction
• motor
• roller
• coaster
• science project
• accelerator

[mrcleanowns]

actually yea, can u go in depth for the linear induction motor? lol

[galexpi]

i added some more details in the description. hope this helps.

[adisharr]

Nice job :) If there's no smoke, there's no progress ;)

[wbaldwin100]

Can you please give instructions on the wiring of the circuit board. Thanks.

[AVPLANES1]

Cool though

[AVPLANES1]

Nerd

[dlowrance]

well*

[TheSyncopator]

Why would the wire burn up? Isnt #16 AWG wire rated for 600 volts?

[TheSyncopator]

@CoasterFan456 However, some coasters also use linear synchronous motors.

[MAGNETGRUNT]

LOL :) Brings back some very old and not so old memories. You look like you're fairly well heeled kid but if you need anything like wire or electronic components, give me a shout. I want to see someone benefit from it before the world blows up. bte - don't mess with anti-gravity or gravitational super conductors

[sinistra92]

You need to learn a lot about physics.