How to Use the Motor

Motors add motion to your Squishy Circuits! In the example below, you can see the battery holder in the background with red and black wires going into each blue conductive dough. The motor's red and black wires also connect into the blue conductive dough pieces completing the circuit and spinning the fan blade.

Try creating a simple circuit and adding the motor. Then, switch the red and black wires. Do you notice anything? Motors do not have polarity so if you switch the wires connecting to the power supply, the direction the motor spins reverses!

When you put a motor in a circuit, it takes the electrical energy flowing through the circuit and converts it into mechanical energy. In other words, when the electricity goes through the motor, it produces motion.

How does this happen? Inside the motor, electricity flows through a long coil of wire which creates an electromagnet. Electromagnets are just like regular magnets and they have a north and south pole. Around that electromagnet are two permanent magnets each with their own north and south poles.

Opposite poles attract one another and the same poles repel one another. By sending electricity through the electromagnet, we can cause the magnets to attract and repel each other simultaneously creating circular motion.