Materials for a Money Alarm
To make a money alarm, you will need:
- cardboard
- paper clips: 2 large, 1 small
- scissors
- tape
- clothes pin (wooden spring-type)
- coin battery
- buzzer
How to Make the Alarm
The video to the left shows Luis and Awad as they make a money alarm. This is what they do:
- Attach paper clips to clothes pin
- Attach clothes pin to base (this step can come later)
- Attach the black wire of buzzer to the first paper clip
- Attach the red wire of buzzer to the + side of the battery
- Attach wire from the - side of battery to the second paper clip
How a Money Alarm Works
The clothes pin and paper clips are a switch. When the paper clips touch, the circuit is complete. The current runs from the battery
- through the wire to one of the paper clips
- from one paper clip to the second paper clip
- from the second paper clip through the wire to the buzzer
- from the buzzer through the wire and back to the battery
Anything that separates the two paper clips opens the circuit. When the circuit is open the buzzer stops. In the money alarm, the paper money separates the two paper clips.
What do you think would happen if the money was a penny or dime instead of the dollar?