Make a Homo-polar Motor in Five Minutes

Here's a REALLY simple example of how anyone can make a simple motor in about 10 minutes or less from Make Magazine.

Building it is simple. Explaining how it works is a little trickier, as there are no alternating poles or brushes typical of the garden variety motor. Check out the homopolar motor description on Wikipedia, and another example of how to make a homopolar motor here at scitoys.com