Whirling with my dervish

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To achieve enlightenment the Dervish twirl their dance to a rhythmic pulse of music.

I was taken by the simplicity of the little motor that drives this piece. The dervish figure is in fact only a an excuse to make the motor. A homopolar motor it consists of an AA cell, three tiny magnets and a piece of wire. The wire is bent into a shape that will hold it in place as it goes on its merry dance, it does not have to be that complex to twirl. If you want to make one be warned that the wire and battery get very hot, it is effectively a short circuit on the battery, which also drains the battery fairly quickly.

FullSizeRender-1assembled motor

for full information on how to make a homopolar motor see here:

STEAM Project: Tiny Dancers (A Homopolar Motor)