There are two types of magnetic poles; north and south. Like poles repel and unlike poles attract. Magnetic fields are vector fields just like gravitational and electric fields. For our magnetism project we made a simple electric motor, called a Beakman’s motor. This motor works on an inefficient DC motor principle. For this motor you need a magnet. The coil has to be closer to one pole of the magnet. If you use a bar magnet you have to be closer to one end. The current goes around the armature windings in a loop/circle. This generates a magnetic field around the wire and turns the loop into a magnet. If the loop is closer to the S pole of the bar magnet the loop will rotate so the N pole moves toward the bar magnet and the S pole moves away, so the loop turns. However when the loop makes a half turn, the current is cut off because the wire has insulation on the side that is now in contact with the cradle, but the loop continues its motion until the part with no insulation moves into contact and the current flows again repeating the cycle. In a normal DC motor, at the half turn the current switched direction flipping the N and S poles of the loop instead of shutting off the magnetic poles, so there is a positive torque at all times instead of torque on only half of the cycle. Some errors include; friction on the wire, the angle at which the battery is tilted, slight bend of the wire and the charge/power the battery has.
Here is a video of our magnetism project: