When charges move they also create what are known as magnetic fields.

Moving charges also feels magnetic forces from magnetic fields.

These are the same fields and forces that hold your fridge magnets onto the steel door of your fridge.

Magnets like these use materials which generate a constant magnetic field and are known as 'permanent magnets'.

The electrons and/or nuclei of atoms within these materials generate magnetic fields which all line up to produce a strong permanent magnetic field.

We have already said that when charges move they create magnetic fields.

So when electrical current flows along a wire it will create a magnetic field.

This can be very useful because it allows us to make an electric motor or an electric actuator.

A magnetic field created by a wire will mean that it can push or pull on a permanent magnet or on a field created by another wire.

This means an electric current can be used to produce linear movement (actuator) or rotational movement (motor).

If we wind the wire many times around something known as a 'former' we will get a very strong magnetic field, increasing the pull/push forces.

The more turns of the wire, the stronger the field.