This week we performed an experiment with the computer and the nxt robot. We used a computer program that recorded all of the data that the robot collected and reported it onto excel. Using excel we placed all of the data onto graphs to observe our results.
In class..
We were curious to see how efficient solar energy was. Starting off my group used a light and the robotic device that could collect light. We wanted to see how well the device would react at different distances. We used the distances 0, 4, 8, and 12 inches for our data. Our hypothesis for this part of our experiment was that the more distance there were between the light and the solar cells on the robot the less voltage that was going to be generated on the robot. We went ahead and did our experiment, using a ruler to measure out the distances that we were going to use. Once we were done we took the data on Excel and made them into graphs (look below).
As you can see the data proves our hypothesis correct. The graph is a downwards slope and as the cell gets farther from the light the voltage of the solar cells decreases.
Our next series of tests…
We then proceeded to testing whether the color would affect the voltage of the cell. For this test we did not need to measure from a distance (used 0 inches distance) since it wasn’t our objective. Our group chose the colors of pink, yellow, blue, and orange. My hypothesis of the results were that the brighter colors would allow the cells to have more voltage while the darker colors would decrease the voltage of the cell. After doing the tests our results were put on the graph below.
As you can see our hypothesis was wrong because the brighter colors seem to produce less voltage. It seems like the voltage of the cells does not depend on how bright the colors are but something else. I suspect the voltage of the cells depends on the wavelength of the light after the previous hypothesis was proven wrong.
One thought on “So many pretty colored lights!”