Victoria’s Science Project

Here is our the lab report, we made on the experiment me did, to find out which propellor design is more efficient.

Propeller Efficiency

Problem: What propeller design is most efficient?
Hypothesis: We think that Test3 propellers will be the most efficient.
Materials:
1. Pieces of Card
2. Wind Generator Kit
3. Generator
4. Rubber band
5. Light Bulb
6. Two Wires
7. 1 Ammeter
8. 1 Fan
9. 5 Different Wing Designs

Procedure:
1. Design different propeller styles that you want to try out.
2. Make the propellers out of the card. (Remember you need three of the same propellers to get one set).
3. Assemble the wooden frame given to you in the “Wind Generator Kit” and attach the generator, the two wires and the light bulb onto the frame with the rubber band.
4. Glue the first set of propellers onto the wooden core provided in the “Wind Generator Kit” and fix the propellers onto the generator.
5. Place the fan about 15cm away from the wind generator and make it point directly toward it.
6. If the propellers start spinning measure the amount of energy being generated by placing the ammeter pins on the back of the generator.
7. Once you have your results, take the set of propellers off and glue on the next set. Do the same for all the propellers.

Observations:
Test 1: We tried to get Test 1 propellers to spin, but they did not therefore the light did not light up.
They generated: 0mA
Test2: These propellers worked.
They generated: 79mA (this wasn’t strong enough for the light bulb to give off any light).
Test3: These propellers worked, but they didn’t go as fast as we expected them to.
They generated: 76mA (this too wasn’t strong enough for the light bulb to give off any light).
Test4: Due to time constraints, we didn’t get a chance to test, Test 4 propellers and measure how much energy they generated.
They generated: X
Test5: These propellers worked marvelous!
They generated: 194mA (the light bulb lit up!).

Results/Conclusion:
By doing this experiment we realized that our hypothesis was wrong and that Test5 propellers were actually the most efficient. We believe the reason that Test5 propellers were the most efficient, was that they were slightly longer than all of the others, giving them more surface area to capture the wind. Their triangular shape made it easier to distinguish which way the propellers would turn, because wind could only be captured on one side, and not balanced on both sides like the Test1 and 2 propellers did, making them slower. If we could do this experiment again, we would change several things. First of all we would want to find time to test out all of the propellers, and we would want to try all of the propellers out several times in order to get the most accurate answers possible. In addition to that we might want to spend more time learning how the ammeter works so that we could make sure its on the right setting and so that we can record the results down quickly when we are pressed for time. When doing out experiment, we encountered lots of problems, and if we could do it again we would change many things, therefore our answers might not be as accurate as they could be, but we ended up with the answer we needed to continue our model, and that is what counts.