Abstract:
The jumping ring experiment is an outstanding demonstration of Faraday's laws of induction and
also of Lenz's law. A conducting non-magnetic ring is put on the iron core of a solenoid. When
AC power is applied to the solenoid, the ring is thrown off or held in a state of levitation. This
phenomenon happens because the induced current in the ring flows in the direction to counter that
of the solenoid current. Consequently, two magnetic fields repel each other, giving rise to the jump
effect. This work concerns the construction of the jumping ring apparatus and determination of the
jumping ring behavior in terms of jump height. Two set of aluminium, copper, and brass rings of
different dimensions were constructed. The first set was made by variable ring thickness from 1.5-7.5
mm with the same vertical length of 9 mm. The other was made by variable ring vertical length
from 3 - 39 mm with the same thickness of 1.5 mm. Their behavior were quantitatively
investigated at various alternating currents (0.50+-0.07 A, 0.55+-0.08 A, and 0.60+-0.12 A) and
temperatures (30.00+-0.50 C and -45.93+-1.24 C).
It was found that for the rings of the same dimension, applied current and temperature, the jump
height increased in the following order: brass ring < copper ring < aluminium ring. The aluminium
ring achieved the highest jump height in comparison with other materials. This is because
aluminium gives the smallest product of resistivity and density which result in the greatest upward
acceleration (levitating force per mass) to the ring. However, for the rings of the same temperature
and dimension, the jump height increased with increasing applied current because the upward force
is proportional to the square of current in the solenoid. When lowering the temperature of the ring,
its electrical resistance decreased and hence the induced ring current increased causing the ring to
jump higher. Furthermore, for the rings of the same mass, the jump height increased with
increasing the ring thickness because the upward force is proportional to the cross section area of
the ring.