Student #1

The electrical transfer of energy starts with the kinetic energy in the wind. This

kinetic energy then transfers into rotational kinetic energy which is the spinning of the

blades. Some energy is lost here because the blades only get hit by some of the wind,

not all of it. It gets transferred to mechanical energy which is what spins the gears. After

that, the energy changes to electrical energy once it hits the generator. Energy is lost in

the form of heat for those last two steps. The mechanical transfer of energy also starts

with the kinetic energy in the wind followed by the change to rotational kinetic energy of

the blades. Energy is lost here as well because the blades don’t catch all of the wind.

The energy then transfers to mechanical energy which is what spins the wood

attachment which causes the string to wrap around it bringing the cup with washers up.

There is some energy lost here in the form of heat from the small amount of friction from

the string on the wood and cup.

For my experiment, I started with 2.12 joules per second for the power in the

wind. For the initial design, I got .0248 joules per second for the electrical part. This

means that a vast majority of energy was lost, around 99%. The energy was probably

lost in the form of heat. For the redesign for electrical, I got .1102 joules per second.

This was a very small improvement but less energy was lost in the form of heat. The

energy is lost in the form of heat because when the generator starts working it gets hot

so it releases heat. Heat could also be lost from a small amount of friction from when

the gears turn. This time only about 95% of energy was lost. For the initial design for the

mechanical one, I got .2532 joules per second. The efficiency of this was 11.94%. For
the redesign one, I got .2848 joules per second with an efficiency of 13.43%. In both of

these instances I believe that energy was lost in the form of heat. The energy is lost

here because of the friction from the string wrapping around the wood attachment. So

much energy was lost from the blades because the blades couldn’t catch more wind.

This is probably because there was only a slight curve in the blade and it was only in a

small area of it. Maybe if the curve continued throughout the blade, it would have been

able to catch more of the wind. This would have made the blades spin faster and

increased the amount of washers the blades could lift.

If I was to attempt this lab/design challenge again I would want to try and add

some grooves in the blades. I would want to do this so the blades could possibly do a

better job manipulating how the wind would flow over them. If I wanted to increase the

rotations per minute of the blades then I would make them lighter so they could spin

faster. If I wanted to increase the blade's ability to lift more washers, I think I would have

the blades have more of a bend towards the center. That way they could catch more

wind to lift the washers.

Student #2

Throughout the lab there are many points at witch power is transferred and lost.

The power first enters the lab as electricity, witch is transferred in to mechanical energy

produced from a motor, and can be lost as heat in the wires. The mechanical energy is

used to spin a propeller witch produces wind and loss energy in friction from the motor.
The used energy becomes kinetic energy in the form of wind, witch is then transfer back

in to mechanical energy as it spins a turbine, this step is one of the biggest losses of

energy as much of the wind is not used to spin the turbine. The mechanical energy from

the turbine is the used to lift a weight wich becomes potential, the loss of energy is

observed in the friction from the spinning of the propeller. Much of the electrical system

is the same however once the energy is produced from the turbine it is converted in to

electrical energy by spinning a little generator, energy is lost from the spinning of the

propelr and the friction from turning the gears and then also from turning the generator

itself.

The energy entered the system from the power from the wind wich equal 1.89

J/s. Of the energy captured only .1119J/s are being transferred to electricity, wich

means I have a 5.9% electric efficiency. When it comes to mechanical energy

transferred through the system it is .188J/s wich only has an efficiency of 3.2%

If I were to do this lab again I would try a third material. I would look for

something that is more rigid than the paper that I used frist while still being lighter than

the cardboard I used for the second model. I would also like to try a forth propeller on

the turbine. And a third thing that I would like to try if I got another attempt is see if I

could try to increase the surface of my propellers.