Build a Shake Flashlight—Demonstration Kit

Product Details

Shake and light up your classroom! Engage your students by building a flashlight that doesn’t need batteries—it harnesses and stores the power of a handshake. Students see a real-world application of Faraday’s law of magnetic induction and learn how to build a circuit. Powerful neodymium magnets are shaken through 600 feet of coiled magnet wire, inducing an alternating current. An arrangement of diodes converts the current from AC to DC, which is stored in a supercapacitor. Simply flip the switch, and the capacitor releases the stored energy in the form of light through an LED. Flashlight can be dismantled and reassembled or left completed. Includes all components to create one shake flashlight, detailed instructions and a reproducible student worksheet.

Concepts: Basic circuitry, elecromagnetic induction, capacitance, energy transfer.
Time Required: 25 minutes
Materials Provided: Two breadboards, capacitor, cotton balls, four diodes, pre-coiled 600 feet of magnet wire, two LEDs, three neodymium magnets, plastic tube, resistor.