Goals:
The goal of our project is to demonstrate a transfer of mechanical energy to electrical energy. We have chosen to do this by making homemade generators that light up small diodes. One generator that we made can be seen to the right.
What We Learned:
Children do not need expensive computers, mp3 players, or video games to keep them entertained for an afternoon. We used seventy inches of cardboard, four bar magnets, and three hundred feet of copper wire to keep the attention of thirty fourth graders for an afternoon.
Process:
As the last project of our Rapid Prototyping course, our professor challenged us to come up with an (experiment) that could be used to show a transfer of energy. We chose to, as stated above, show the transfer of mechanical energy to electrical energy. Once we chose a principle, we began brainstorming different mechanical processes that could be used. We decided to make small generators using electromagnetism.
Object
We built the generators by, first, cutting out 5" x 14" pieces of cardboard and folding them into rectangular boxes. We then glued four magnets together and put a nail through the middle of the cardboard and magnets. The last thing we had to do was wrap copper wiring around the cardboard and connect the ends of the wire to a light emitting diode (or LED). To light the diode, we would spin the nail which would spin the magnets and create a magnetic field. The magnetic field would then force current through the wire that would, when the magnets were spinning fast enough, light the diode