You can make an electromagnet stronger by doing these things:

• wrapping the coil around a piece of iron (such as an iron nail)
• adding more turns to the coil.
• increasing the current flowing through the coil.

The four main factors that affect the strength of an electromagnet are the loop count, the current, the wire size, and the presence of an iron core.

Applications of electromagnets

• Motors and generators.
• Transformers.
• Relays.
• Electric bells and buzzers.
• Loudspeakers and headphones.
• Actuators such as valves.
• Magnetic recording and data storage equipment: tape recorders, VCRs, hard disks.
• MRI machines.

Strength of an Electromagnet The combined magnetic force of the magnetized wire coil and iron bar makes an electromagnet very strong. In fact, electromagnets are the strongest magnets made. An electromagnet is stronger if there are more turns in the coil of wire or there is more current flowing through it.

The strongest permanent magnets in the world are neodymium (Nd) magnets, they are made from magnetic material made from an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron to form the Nd2Fe14B structure.

Factors that affect the strength of electromagnets are the nature of the core material, strength of the current passing through the core, the number of turns of wire on the core and the shape and size of the core.

Steps

1. Take your nail and wire and firmly coil the wire around the nail, leaving two straight pieces of wire at each end.
2. Place the battery beside the wire coil and nail.
3. Align each end of the wire to the battery.
4. Tape the ends of the wire to the battery ends with some tape and wait for a few seconds.

Thus, it is true that the thickness of the wire affects the strength of the electromagnet. The strength of the magnet will increase with the increase in the thickness of the wire too because per unit area, more electrons will pass through a thicker wire.