Making a Motor

My physics third term project was to make a motor that would spin for at least 60 seconds.  This was probably the most challenging project so far.  It took many hours of hard work.  My partner Blair and I spent a lot of time trying to replicate different models that we saw on youtube.com.  However, nothing was working.  Finally my dad gave us the idea of using a stronger magnet.  We were not allowed to use a magnet in our project, but if we were able to make our own magnet that would be allowed.  We made a magnet out of a large metal stake that had copper wire coiled around it.  This was the answer to our problem.  As soon as we had a powerful magnet we were able to make our motor spin as long as we wanted it to.  This project was a great learning experience, complete with the feeling of accomplishment at the end as we watched our motor spin.