Purpose/Hypothesis
In our solar cell experiment, we were tasked with experimenting with solar panels and how they function. In the first part of the lab we wanted to see how changing the intensity of light affected the amount of electricity produced by the solar cell. Since we were using a flashlight with a constant intensity, we needed to alter the intensity by instead changing the distance of the light to the solar cell for each trial. A second part to the lab had us experiment with different colored filters to change the wavelength of the light, while intensity remained constant, and record the results on electricity generation the filters had.
Materials
Solar cell, NXT robot, colored filters, flashlight, ruler, voltage probe (plus alligator clips), a Labview program and Excel spreadsheet were set up prior to class to record our data as we conducted the experiments.
Procedure 1 (Light Intensity)
- Hook up the alligator clips attached to the voltage probe to the solar cell’s wires and plug the probe into the NXT
- Attach the NXT to the computer
- Open Labview and run two control experiments with no light source: one with the solar cell turned upside down, and one with the cell turned right side up
- Run 4 tests to determine how intensity of the light affects voltage produced: One with the flashlight 0cm away from the cell, one 10cm away, one 30 cm away, and one 60 cm away
- Get an average of the voltage produced, as recorded by LabView and Excel and graph the findings.
Results of Procedure 1
The results show that our hypothesis was correct. As the light got less intense (moved farther away) from the solar cell, the voltage clearly reduced. The most voltage was recorded when the light source was directly on top of the solar cell.
Procedure 2 (Light filters)
- Run one test with no filter at 0cm for a control
- Run 4 tests with 4 different filters all at 0cm from cell
- Record summary of voltages produced by each filter and graph results
Results of Procedure 2
The results show that using any type of filter reduces the voltage produced by the solar cell. No filter produced the most electricity.