Today, we constructed electric motors which work by using batteries to power an electromagnet that would spin a metal shaft that had magnets glued to it. The batteries had two wires coming off of them, one went to the electromagnet while the other went to a reed switch, and the reed switch was then connected to the electromagnet. The reed switch is used to turn the magnet on and off at the correct speed by breaking the circuit when not pulled by the magnets. The electromagnet would spin the shaft with the magnets glued to it when the two pieces of metal in the reed switch were connected.