World's Simplest Motor™

(16 reviews)

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World's Simplest Motor
Item #: SS-11
$6.50

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Replacement Wires for World's Simplest Motor
Item #: SS-11A
$4.95

10 points (Points accrued: 0)

package of 5
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This easily assembled motor is able to run for more than 5 hours.

D Batteries - pack of 24

SKU #BAT-30P

Availability: In Stock

$19.95

40 points (Points accrued: 0)

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D Extra Heavy Duty carbon-zinc batteries. Sold in packs or cases.

Description

This easily assembled motor is able to run for more than five hours on a simple D-Cell (flashlight battery). Recommended for ages eight and up. Requires D-Cell battery, not included.

Replacement wires are also available. You can buy your whole class a set of our World's Simplest Motors and have students wind their own armatures year after year. The wire is the same used in the original kit.

Need replacement magnets? Our M-187 neodymium ring magnets make great replacements and are even stronger than the originals.

Video

Lesson Ideas

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Reviews

16 reviews

Poor instructions

Oct 15, 2022

This motor will never work with the supplied instructions and materials. The copper wire supplied has a thermal coating on it making it externally non-conductive. The ends of the "axles" need to be sanded down so the circuit between the battery post is completed

Nick

Owner Response: I'm sorry you had difficulty constructing your motor, but the instructions on the packaging clearly state that the wire has an enamel coating for insulation and then proceeds to explain how to remove it from only the top side at one end and to remove it fully on the opposite end. We are happy to replace your wire if you need a new one. Please reach out to customer support.

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Great for our employee engagement project

Jun 2, 2021

We sent this kit and a few other activities to employees with kids over the summer. It is a fun project for all ages. You have to follow the steps carefully and tinker a bit to get the motor working, but it's super fun and rewarding to get it going. In my own family I had fun doing this with my 6 and 3 year olds, but it's even better for older kids up to high school (and adults too)! This kit is the best value and simplest product I could find after lots of research. Educational Innovations offered awesome customer service, too.

Sara

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Great demonstration of a motor

Mar 31, 2020

This simple motor works great. It is very easy to put together, taking no more than five minutes. I use it as a demonstration for students to show how motors work - it shows the fundamental concepts really well.

Emilie Cassar

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Finally a small dc motor

Mar 2, 2020

As a retired electric motor repair man, I wanted to have some fun with a very little dc motor. At my age I need to keep my mind and hands busy. I use to repair large electric motors. I'm talking in the hundreds of horsepower. It was fun to put the little motor together.

Bob

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Lovely Demonstration!

Dec 12, 2019

Simple, elegant motor, and easy to build if you understand the principles involved. The most care must be taken to only scrape off the insulation on one side of the wire as shown in the instructions. I found it helpful to also glue the wire where the side wires are wrapped around the coil to prevent slippage, and to bend the straight wires close to the outside of the copper uprights to make sure the coil remains centered. Have fun!

William Prince

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Read the directions carefully!

Feb 21, 2019

I have used this simple motor kit for years when introducing the principles of electric motors to students. It is very reliable. I suggest that those who report problems are missing a very important step - you must only strip the ends of the wire on ONE SIDE, the top or bottom. If you strip it all the way around, it will not work.

Ann Burns

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Worlds's simplest motor

Feb 11, 2019

Although very inexpensive don't waste your money. I had a hard time getting it to work, and played with it. Finally every time I activated it worked great then after about 4-5 times working OK I can't get it to work. It seems that it needs some tweaking.

Richard Nelson

Owner Response: Please give our customer service department a call, so we can get this motor working for you. It really is awesome once you get it tweaked properly and working!

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most simplest motor

Jul 5, 2015

neatly created, I love simplicity

CARLOS LAROSA

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Great for a

Mar 25, 2015

Used as a "test" for lessons in electricity and magnetism. Teams of three fifth graders assemble these motors in about 20 minutes and then compete to see who's motor runs the fastest. Good fun and competition. Building success rate - about 80% running in 20 minutes. They have the three key parts of an electromagnetic motor: stationary field, rotating field and commutator

Michael Thuot

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Simple Motors

Feb 12, 2015

I usually have my students make their own motors, but this is the second year I have used these and I and my students really like them and they are inexpensive.

Patricia Bender

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Awesome!

Dec 19, 2014

This is a great demonstation piece. It is easy to assemble and makes the workings of a motor easy for anyone to understand.

Diana

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Very nice demo; tricky to build

Jul 12, 2013

This kit is an excellent demonstration of basic motor principles. It exactly mimics the function of a permanent magnet DC motor and helps students understand the production of magnetic fields by an electric current as well as the production of torque by orthogonal fields. However, a successful, operating build is difficult and requires care to align the wire ends with the center of the wire loop. My seven-year-old grandson enjoyed this but I had to do a fair amount of 'tweaking' to get his version working. The contact area is prone to oxidation and needs frequent cleaning. This is a bit easier to build than a similar motor I constructed 53 years ago at age 10 from 16 penny nails and a spool of magnet wire. THAT taught me the value of persistence - this one can, too, but it can also generate a lot of frustration w/o good supervision.

Warren Buckles

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As promised

Feb 13, 2013

Super simple to put together. Worked on the first try. I added a glue dot to keep the magnet from falling out when I turn it over.

Science Teacher

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Flint Hill

May 29, 2012

Love the demonstration capabilities of this product. I did find that it was not "simple" to put together on the first try.

Ann Pankow

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5-8 Science

May 22, 2012

My students love making their own simple motor, but our school doesn't have enough money to buy one of these for each student, so I have them make their own using the instructions at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it_Z7NdKgmY. When you build your own, the students can experiment with different types of magnets. Also, the most difficult part of the simple motor is making the wire coil even on both sides so it will spin. Unfortunately, with this purchase, you still have to wind your own coil.

Elizabeth DeBoo

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8th grade science

May 22, 2012

I was very disappointed in this product. Three teachers could not get this motor to work.

Linda Guillory

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NGSS

This product will support your students' understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)*, as shown in the table below.

Elementary

Middle School

High School

K-2-ETS1-1

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

3-PS2-3

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to ask questions to determine cause and effects relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

4-PS3-2

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to make observation to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place via electric currents.

MS-PS2-5

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.

MS-PS3-5

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the motion energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.

MS-ETS1-2

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to evaluate complete design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

HS-PS2-5

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that an electric current can produce a magnetic field and that a changing magnetic field can produce an electric current.

HS-PS3-2

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor to develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as either motions of particles or energy stored in fields.

Suggested Science Idea(s)

DCI/HS-PS.A

Students can use the World's Simplest Motor in a number of investigations when exploring electrical energy and magnetic fields.

* NGSS is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this product.

World's Simplest Motor™

D Batteries - pack of 24

NGSS

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