You have one drywall screw, one 1.5 V alkaline cell, six inches of plain
copper wire, one small neodymium disk magnet, and no other tools or
supplies. You have 30 seconds to make an electric motor running in
excess of ten thousand RPM. Can you do it? Surprisingly enough, you
can.
Attach the magnet to one end of the battery. The weak, single-point
contact that you are making serves as an low-friction bearing. I like
to attach it to the button end, but the other end will work as well.
(If you do so, the motor will spin the opposite direction. You can also
reverse the direction by flipping the magnet up side down.)
Watch out: The screw and magnet can easily fly out of control, and you do not
want that screw ending up in your eye. Also note that some of the
components, like the wire, can get very warm while you're doing this.
Wear safety glasses and use common sense!
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