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Grades
8 to 12 |
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Introduction:
(Initial
Observation)
- Wind is a form of solar energy
that occurs when the sun heats the air, which causes the air
to rise, creating a vacuum. That vacuum pulls in cooler air
creating wind. Scientists estimate that some 2 percent of
sunlight energy received by the earth is converted to kinetic
energy of the winds. (Righter 3)
- Tenth century, vertical
carousel-type mills were used in Persia to grind corn and
raise water from streams for irrigation.
- European post-mill (whole
tower and mechanism turned to face the wind) profoundly
affected European development from the twelfth to nineteen
centuries. The first English post-windmill was erected in 1137
A.D. by William of Almoner of Leicester. (Righter 10)
- The Dutch adopted tower-mill
windmills where only the tower and sails changed direction
with the wind.
- Uses include grinding pepper
and other spices, cocoa dyes, chalk, and paint pigments.
Lumber companies employed them as primary power for saw mills.
Paper companies used windmills to reduce wood to pulp for
paper.
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This
page is under construction
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In this project you will make a
working model of a wind turbine and calculate the amount of electrical
energy that can be produced by your wind turbine. You can make a wind turbine using wood. So wood working skills, some tools
and adult supervision and help is required for this project.
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This page is available to all
ScienceProject members as a source of additional information,
ideas or experiments.
No support is available for the
information in this page. |
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Information
Gathering:
Gather information about your
project. If you are a basic or advanced member of ScienceProject.com,
your project advisor may prepare the initial information that you need
and enter them in this section. In any case it is necessary for you to
read additional books, magazines or ask professionals
who might know in order to learn more about the subject of your research. Keep track of where you got your information from.
Components
These are the components or parts for each of most wind mills.
Propeller
The propeller draws the power for generator from wind.
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Question/ Purpose:
What do you want to
find out? Write a statement that describes what you want to do.
Use your observations and questions to write the statement.
The purpose of this project is to
build a small wooden wind turbine and connect it to a small generator
in order to produce electricity.
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Identify Variables:
When you think you
know what variables may be involved, think about ways to change
one at a time. If you change more than one at a time, you will
not know what variable is causing your observation. Sometimes
variables are linked and work together to cause something. At
first, try to choose variables that you think act independently
of each other.
Variables that may affect the
production of electricity by a wind turbine are design variables such as size
and shape of the propeller, as well as wind speed.
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Hypothesis:
Based on your gathered
information, make an educated guess about the answer to your question or
the result of your experiment.
My hypothesis is that a wooden
propeller, installed on a generator with or without a gear box can
produce electricity.
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Experiment
Design:
Design an experiment
to test each hypothesis. Make a step-by-step list of what you
will do to answer each question. This list is called an experimental
procedure. For an experiment to give answers you can trust, it
must have a "control." A control is an additional experimental
trial or run. It is a separate experiment, done exactly like
the others. The only difference is that no experimental variables
are changed. A control is a neutral "reference point"
for comparison that allows you to see what changing a variable
does by comparing it to not changing anything. Dependable controls
are sometimes very hard to develop. They can be the hardest part
of a project. Without a control you cannot be sure that changing
the variable causes your observations. A series of experiments
that includes a control is called a "controlled experiment."
So you want to make a wind turbine and
use it's energy to run an electric generator. There are many ways that
you can design your project. For example you may construct a wooden
propeller and connect it directly to a bicycle generator to produce
electricity.
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Materials and
Equipment:
List of material depends on
your final design. In general you will need some wood, some wires, a
generator, a light bulb and a socket. Additional material such as nails,
screws and wood glues depend on your design.
Where to buy?
You may purchase wood from some
hardware stores or home improvement stores or hobby stores.
Screw base 6 volts light bulb and
socket can also be purchased from hardware stores.
Bicycle generator is available at
bicycle stores and sport shops.
These material may also be ordered
online to MiniScience.com or klk.com
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Results of
Experiment (Observation):
Experiments are often
done in series. A series of experiments can be done by changing
one variable a different amount each time. A series of experiments
is made up of separate experimental "runs." During
each run you make a measurement of how much the variable affected
the system under study. For each run, a different amount of change
in the variable is used. This produces a different amount of
response in the system. You measure this response, or record
data, in a table for this purpose. This is considered "raw
data" since it has not been processed or interpreted yet.
When raw data gets processed mathematically, for example, it
becomes results. |
Calculations:
If you do any calculation for
your project, write your calculations in this section. |
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Summery
of Results:
Summarize what happened.
This can be in the form of a table of processed numerical data,
or graphs. It could also be a written statement of what occurred
during experiments.
It is from calculations using
recorded data that tables and graphs are made. Studying tables
and graphs, we can see trends that tell us how different variables
cause our observations. Based on these trends, we can draw conclusions
about the system under study. These conclusions help us confirm
or deny our original hypothesis. Often, mathematical equations
can be made from graphs. These equations allow us to predict
how a change will affect the system without the need to do additional
experiments. Advanced levels of experimental science rely heavily
on graphical and mathematical analysis of data. At this level,
science becomes even more interesting and powerful. |
Conclusion:
Using the trends in
your experimental data and your experimental observations, try
to answer your original questions. Is your hypothesis correct?
Now is the time to pull together what happened, and assess the
experiments you did. |
Related Questions
& Answers:
What you have learned
may allow you to answer other questions. Many questions are related.
Several new questions may have occurred to you while doing experiments.
You may now be able to understand or verify things that you discovered
when gathering information for the project. Questions lead to
more questions, which lead to additional hypothesis that need
to be tested. |
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Possible
Errors:
If you did not observe
anything different than what happened with your control, the
variable you changed may not affect the system you are investigating.
If you did not observe a consistent, reproducible trend in your
series of experimental runs there may be experimental errors
affecting your results. The first thing to check is how you are
making your measurements. Is the measurement method questionable
or unreliable? Maybe you are reading a scale incorrectly, or
maybe the measuring instrument is working erratically.
If you determine that experimental
errors are influencing your results, carefully rethink the design
of your experiments. Review each step of the procedure to find
sources of potential errors. If possible, have a scientist review
the procedure with you. Sometimes the designer of an experiment
can miss the obvious. |
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References:
Wind mills are usually made in large
sizes. Links will follow:
http://www.otherpower.com/woodmill.html
http://www.energy.iastate.edu/WindManual/Text-Power.html
http://www.windmillersgazette.com/images/photo18.jpg
http://home.inforamp.net/~ffwd/windmill/
http://www.entfored.com/nav3/greenpower.html
http://www.oswego.edu/nova/facts/wind/wind.html
http://www.memeshadow.net/cmamas/meccano/cmnet01.html
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