[Tom] doesn’t much like breadboarding. He prefers to wire up prototypes with perfboard and solder point-to-point with enameled magnet wire. That may sound troublesome to some of you, but [Tom ...

When an electric current passes through a metal wire, a magnetic field forms around that wire (see diagram at right). Likewise, a wire passing through a magnetic field creates an electric current ...

A coil of wire, or solenoid, consists of a wire coiled up into a spiral shape. When an electric current flows, the shape of the magnetic field is very similar to the field of a bar magnet.