Techniquest

Exhibit: Jumping Ring

Which is easier, making a new can or recycling an old one? By turning the crank you are generating electricity which travels to the coil creating a magnetic field.

Just imagine if you had to turn a wheel every time you wanted a drink, which would you prefer?

By turning a wheel you also turn some copper wires, or a coil of wires. This coil is placed inside a tube and when electrified creates a magnetic current in the can, which in turn, creates another field. The forces between the two fields throws the can upwards into the air inside a plastic pipe connected to the ceiling. This shows that not only is it easier to recycle a can, it also means that if we recycled more, we would never run out of aluminium to make cans. Just one recycled can saves enough energy to run a television set for three hours!