Victoria's Science Project

Lab Report

victoriafrancois — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:22:23 +0000

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.

Video

victoriafrancois — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:12:44 +0000

After many hours of hard work….

Here it is….

Our video on Climate Change!!! Enjoy!!!

Labeled Model

victoriafrancois — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:40:29 +0000

Here is our labeled model:

Normally this would be attached onto a bike, in order for it to be a bike saftey light. Here is how it works:

1) The wind you feel on your face while biking, is what will make the propellors turn to create energy.

2) That energy created by the propellors turning is transmitted into the little generator that turns the energy into electricity.

3) The electricity made powers the light bulb.

4) Voila you have a completely GREEN and eco friendly bike light!

Project Progress – May 17th

victoriafrancois — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:28:56 +0000

Today Catherine came over to my house to finish our project, and I am happy to announce that we finished our video! Now all that we have to do is edit the video and put it together.

I sure we’ll make the deadline

Project Progress – May 8th

victoriafrancois — Sun, 17 May 2009 12:18:49 +0000

Today Catherine and I worked really hard as we knew that the deadline for this project is aproaching faster than we had expected.

Today we attached the propellors, generator and light bulb onto my bike with string, and manged to film a part of our video. We also continued to write our script so that next time we have time to work on our project we will be ready to finish filming.

Next week we are going to Italy with the whole 8th grade and so we won’t have time to work on our project, but hopefully we will find time on the weekend to finish up.

Project Progress – May 6th

victoriafrancois — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:21:33 +0000

Today we finally got the results to our experiment, which propellers were the best. We discovered that Propellers Test 5 were the most efficient.

Our next step is to label our model and attach it to the actual bike, then we have to write the script for out video and start filming

Time!!!

victoriafrancois — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:28:31 +0000

In Science we are now working on the human body, therefore it is hard to find time to work on our project.

Project Progress – April 29th

victoriafrancois — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:46:29 +0000

Today Catherine and I tried to continue testing our propellors, but Mrs Bruneti the 6th grade science teacher needed the ameter (the machine that mesures the about of energy made), so she gave us ten minutes to use it. In that ten minutes we hoped to test out one set of propellors, but they didn’t want to work with us and refused to spin, even though we had seen them spin last time we were testing propellors.

I think it was bad luck though because once we had to return the ameter they started spinning! We were not able to continue our experiment, but instead we will start making the script for our invention video.

Project Progress – April 24th

victoriafrancois — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:56:09 +0000

Today we worked on creating and testing different designs of propellers. We haven’t yet finished the experiment to find out which type of propeller spins the fastest in order to collect the most wind and power the light the strongest. To test this we used an electric fan just to figure out the best design of propellers, however on our actual machine the wind is generated by the person riding the bike, therefore the wind is totally natural and doesn’y use any electricity. We will continue working on this next Science lesson.

Progect Progress – April 21st

victoriafrancois — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:03:54 +0000

Yesterday my during science my partener and I descidede that we were going to built a bicycle safety light off of wind power. The wind you feel when you ride a bike is used to fuel the electricity, so it should be pretty easy.

We got a fan out and using one of Dr Brownings wind generators we figured out the best place to put the propellors that would generate the energy and which direction to face it.

We also found out the best way to prove our invention without actually using a bike, so that fillming can be easy. Then we realized before we can make our invention we have to answer the question, We started designing different propellor shapes and we have to conduct an experiment to ask ourselves, “What is the best propellor shape to use in order to power a light bulb off wind power?” so we started designing different propellor shapes and next lesson we will start creating the propellors out of card. Later on we will use a fan to determine which is more efficiant.