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Re: solenoids



At 09:29 4/3/01 -0400, you wrote:
Has anyone come across manufactured left-hand wired solenoids?
McMasters and a few other machinist parts catalogs only list
right-hand wired solenoids.

We are looking for them (and would rather not make them) for use in
the physics lab because a number of students in our intro physics
classes come to the conclusion that the current enters a solenoid on
the end with the south pole and leaves on the end with a north pole.
I suspect that this is due to the chirality of the solenoid. Has
anyone else seen this observation on the part of the students?

Thank you,

Dave Clark

If you could overcome the aversion, a heavy nail and a foot or two
of copper wire, perhaps a limiting resistor and a compass would be
a useful 'guided discovery'.

Although I didn't have time to explore the issue at lunch time,
John Denker's excellent note on kilowatt-hour meters reminds me that
a basic AC power meter ought not to be beyond reach of a person
who can wind a coil, or dismantle a bell transformer.

A domestic meter suited for single phase may have just one
voltage coil on a stack facing one side of an aluminum disk,
and two current stacks facing the other side of the disk,
arranged to produce a moving field when both current and voltage
are available.
This looks like two sets of "E" transformer stampings,
suitably arranged. Here's A GE implementation
(the diagram compressed to within an inch of its life)

<http://www.intellisys.net/users/inet/stator.jpg>




brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net> Altus OK
Eureka!