Wind Turbine

In my groups wind turbine, there were five main physics concepts that are very important in creating a successful wind turbine, they are, electromagnetic induction, the process of energy conversion, torque, friction, and Newton's Laws.


Electromagnetic Induction

Electromagnetic induction occurs when a magnet or magnets are pushed though a coil of wire, the coil of wire will have a current and once the magnet passes by the magnetic field will change that induces a voltage that then causes a current, this current either be stored to be used later or used then, for example a crank flashlight.

Energy Conversion

Now, in a generator, the energy created goes from mechanical energy to electrical energy, but in a motor the energy is converted to mechanical energy from electrical energy.

Torque

In our wind turbine the fan pushed spoons causing torque. When the spoons were being spun the magnets were also being sun so the magnets were able to move through the coils of wire that caused a change in their magnetic field, that induced voltage that then caused a current, without that torque created by the fan there would have been no electricity created.

Friction

When the axis that the spoons rest on has too much friction it will not be able to turn therefore it will not create any voltage. It is very important to have a little friction as possible without the whole turbine collapsing.

There are three of Newton's Laws that can be seen in a wind turbine.

Newton's first law

Newton's first law states an object in motion or rest will continue to stay in motion or rest unless an outside force acts upon it. This can been seen in the wind turbine with how it continues to turn once the fan has been turned off, but it only continues turning for a brief moment due to friction. With this law we recognize that wind turbine will continue to spin as long as it has a force acting on it (wind) but when it stops the turbine will slowly come to a stop as well. 

Newton's Second Law

Newton's Second Law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object. This is important because the weight of the turbine and the fans will affect how easily they turn when the wind is blown. Depending on the strength of the wind and the weight of the turbine will determine how many times it will rotate.

Newton's Third Law

Newton's Third Law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. We can easily see this with a wind turbine, if the wind pushed the fan blades backwards then the fan blades push the air forward. 


Materials and Methods

If someone wanted to build a beautiful and very effective wind turbine, all they would need to do is follow these guild lines:First get a sturdy box, then cut out both sides of the box so that the air being blown by the fan will be able to flow freely. Then you would get yourself a nice metal coat hanger and straighten it out to use as a stabilizer/platform for the turbine itself to rest. You will also need a sturdy circle platform, spoons, one solo cup, a couple of current carrying wires, magnets, tape, and a fastener. The magnet and coils are very important in order to make current and voltage.

Below it  picture of our spoons or fans that would rotate the how turbine and create a current! We made this by using a sturdy wooden circle and hot glued the spoons to the wood. The spoons caught the wind from the fan and turned the turbine, without them it would not have moved at all. After we put the magnets on we slid it onto the straightened coat hanger, and fastened it so that it would not fall off.

In this picture below, we can see the underside of the wooded circle this is just as the spoons. We attached the magnets by glueing washers to the bottom of the circle and then the magnets stuck right one! Now before we put the magnets on we made sure that they were facing the same pole, they all were pointing upwards with north. This is very important because if they were just randomly put on then the magnets would not have induce a voltage as well as it could have.

Here are the coils of wire we used. We used the cup to stabilize the coathanger and to taped the coils of wire so that they would be closer to the magnets. This made it easier for the wires to have a voltage induced that would then create a current.

So as you can see we cut out both sides of the box so that the air being pushed by the fan would not come back and reverse the fan blades. This was a very sturdy wind turbine, I was proud to be one of the producers of such a great and beautiful generator.

Results

Our wind turbine generated 0.0015 amps of current and 0.0018 volts.
However, we were not able to light the lightbulb because it required 0.03 amps of current and we only generated 0.0015.

Discussion 
So one thing that my group and I kept in mind was Faraday's law; the longer and more coils the wire was the higher the voltage induced would be. Also, we needed to put the coils of wire and the magnets as close together as possible so that the magnetic fields of the magnets would be closer therefore inducing a larger voltage. One thing that I think that some people might have messed up on is putting the magnets on randomly. It is so very important to make sure they are all facing the same way or is useless to even put them on! Also it is important that the coils of wires are connected together well, use electrical tape to secure them to each other. If I were to do this project again, I think we should have used a larger surface area for the blades the spoons did not have a very large surface area, instead I would have slightly cut some CDs and slid them on the wooden circle so that there would be a larger surface for the wind to push. Lastly, here is a video of our wonderful turbine.