I made an electro magnet out of an iron nail and some wire and battery today. I also broke 2 relays apart and used the electromagnet inside to test some thing. I COULD NOT get any opposition out of anything. Can electromagnets oppose? I could only get them to attract. I know its a dumb question.

Thanks for the great response. If what i was trying to oppose was a strong permanent magnet, then would it work better? In other words, is it only because of the iron cores that they wont oppose easily?

Are you using ac or dc to power them?

This is a great question and the following answers after have answered some of my questions too.  I had a problem not being able to get a monopolar magnet motor to work.  But the magnets would attract on both sides, having no repellation.  I thought maybe I had a faulty magnet, so I went and got real strong ones, (though they kept moving across the table on me attracted to everything) then the motor worked.  (it's just making the wire go around, not harnessing any energy)
So these cheapo magnets, does this mean some of them even though the same type might have some stronger than another? 
2nd question.  On these monopolar motors, you put a battery on top of a magnet (on the negative side of the battery) then a wire on the top of the battery (positive side) then two sides ( I can't get the curled type to work) coming down to either side of the magnet, slightly curled and it spins.  The battery works for about 2 hours gets hot and quits.  Are we really forming a dipole here?  I'm a little skeptical about "monopolar" and wondering if we created a dipole from the magnet attached on the negative side ?  I don't know?


Beck  (trying to learn what you'll never see in school)

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you will never ever have a mono pole magnet, simply cannot be done. You can adjust geometries so that one pole is not as apparent, but it will always be there and it will always be exactly as strong as the opposite pole. If you were to find such a thing you would have something even more impossible than overunity  j/k........

You didn't burst any bubbles.  I was skeptical from the beginning, because it did not make sense with what I read about dipoles, and the magnets are attached to the negative side. The energy apparently does not come from within the battery but is obtained when the dipole and electromagnetic field is formed.  1/2 energy goes to loads and losses, and 1/2 destroys the dipole.  It has to use up the battery reforming this dipole.  I tested my idea that this was occuring (I may not have explained it perfect, sorry) by running it till it ran out of battery power.  Looks like a dipole to me.  Am I wrong?

I also noticed when I turn the magnets over, the wire changes direction running clockwise, or counterclockwise depending on which side the magnets are on.

Beck

Despite configuration there is always the two poles. Like Armagdn said, you can adjust geometries so that one pole is not "AS APPARENT" but there is always two poles (and a center )

@ Freefuelplz. You can get them to attract hey, for opposition try switching the leads around on one of the coils. Test with a small magnet to see which pole is created when current flows through the winding. Like others already said, if you have one E-mag that is larger (wire size will play into the strength of the magnet significantly) it will probably over power a smaller one and just attract to the core regardless. Two e-mags of same gauge and size shouldnt do this.

@Geoscience. IF you are reffering to the monopole motor/energizer of JB's design then I can offer you some tips to get it running. You need to be a little more specific with your explainations, i.e. "the wire changes direction running clockwise..." What changes direction? The wire phsically moves and changes its direction?