Turbine Blog Post

Background

The physics involved to make our turbine create current, or let alone spin were Torque, Newton’s Law of inertia, friction, Faraday’s law, electromagnetic induction, and magnetism. To induce a voltage, this would create a current. Electromagnetic induction works by utilizing the magnetic fields produced by the magnets, which would then induct the wires with them. Friction was ever present, in the pieces which held up the whole system, to the string keeping it in place. Torque was an issue on the blade which carried the magnets, as due to its width carried a large deal of rotational inertia.

Materials and Methods

List of Materials

·        2 liter Soda Bottle

·        Large box from Anderson basement

·        String about 4 ft

·        Coils of wire

·        Magnets

·        Thin round piece of wood to mount magnets

·        Hot glue

·        Robotics 1inch spreader shaft

·        Robotics aluminum 1.2 inch diameter tube

Entire / Wind catching

Coils

Magnet placement

Results

We created .002 volts of energy, and .002 Amps of current.

We were not able to light a light bulb, because we did not create enough current, due to the large amounts of friction we had, and low amounts of wind catching.

Discussion

This project taught me that friction, and rotational inertia is a killer.  I also learned that keeping it simple is the way to go, and that robotic s parts are not always the hot setup. What worked extremely well was mounting our set up on a string rather than on a double cross. We changed our design three times, each time streamlining, and making it sleeker. I suggest this. I also suggest working ahead on the project, since during building things can fall apart very quickly. Don’t try to build a rocket ship, try to build a simple machine. Going back again I would begin with a simpler design from the beginning.