Thermochemistry-You have the Power!
Our project's design took many twists and turns on our way to creating a final energy transferring device. When we first began brainstorming for our project we did not discuss creating WTF. We did not discuss many things at all. It was my interpretation that we were set on building a 3-D prototype of a Dyson Sphere (3DS). A dyson sphere is a hypothetical space station so big that it completely surrounds a star. It captures most of the solar energy the star emits. This is far from being possible with the technology at our disposal today and actually creating this would take countless generations of labor. We decided to make a model with a light bulb powering solar panels surrounding it which would power a motor and power another lightbulb. After coming up with this I was unfortunately unable to come to school for several weeks due to being horribly sick. When I made my epic return my group had decided to move in a different direction. My resourceful teammates took to the internet and came across a very interesting YouTube video. The creator of said video claimed to have made a tutorial to make your very own DIY solar panel. All you needed was a large piece of cardboard covered in tin foil and as many blue ray CDs as you could possibly fit on it. I was assured we had done background research and we went on with this project that in our minds could truly save the world. After about another week of working on this project I decided to watch the video all of the way to the end because I had a hard time understanding how this generated electricity. It was then when I made it to the final minute of the video when the creator revealed that the whole video was a prank and that those of us who believed it are “dumb.” :(
After coming to this realization we seamlessly went into creating the WTF. Apparently while I was out sick we watched a video of a crank system that spun a wheel which then spun a smaller wheel which when connected to a mtor, generated electricity. To pay homage to our late great solar panel we decided to take a couple of the CD’s and make our WTF out of them. We used a wheel slightly 4 inches in diameter for the track wheel and we attached two CD’s to each side to keep our track on. We used rubber bands for the track. We had trouble finding a smaller wheel but eventually found a small toy car wheel that fit perfectly to our motor. Attached these things to a 2 by 4 plank. We were originally going to use a hand crank to turn the big wheel to spin the smaller wheel but I realized this was a horrible idea. Our project was already built wrong because we should have been spinning the little wheel to turn the larger wheel on the motor. To try and save our energy project I decided to use a drill to spin our big wheel rapidly. This proved to be enough energy to power our 2 volt LED.
Our Blueprint:
The Electrical energy of the battery pack turns to mechanical energy and this spins the drill. The drill and the wheel are essentially once machine in this instance so they both possess this mechanical energy while the drill is attached to it. The mechanical energy is converted through the rubber band track and spins the smaller wheel which turns back to electrical energy when it spins the motor which then is converted to light energy within the LED.
If I had to do this project again I would like to be present more. If I had been there for more brainstorming time, work time, and presenting time I think our project would have gone better. Nevertheless I could have made more of an effort to be involved and I have learned this from my experiences during this project and this year. I thought I did a good job leading when things got difficult and being extremely productive in crunch time (Critical Thinking and Communication). I think I could have done a better job taking action early on and being more consistent with my presence and productivity (Collaboration and Conteintous Learner). Overall I though this was a great way to wrap up my splendid year in Chemistry. Thankyou Mrs. Vogl!