Experiment Equipment
If there’s only one thing that can be learned about science from this class, it must be that this is the most “hands-on” of all the major subjects taught at Suffolk. Our most recent lab did not involve the robot pals we made several weeks ago, but that hardly prevented us from using innovate educational technology to enhance the learning process. This week, in order to find out more and promote a greater general comprehension of Faraday’s Law of Induction, we performed another experiment. The tools utilized this week included an altered flashlight that contained an electromagnetic coil, the chasis/computer-body of the robots made famous in previous labs, and the software Labview.
The lab was to operate as thus: as we shook the “generator”/flashlight, the magnet inside would pass through the coil, thereby conducting an amount of electricity that was measured by the robot-chasis and recorded in Labview; our challenge was to determine the differences in electricity generation while increasing and decreasing the shaking of the generator. Would increasing the number of shakes likewise increase the electricity output, or would an inverse relationship develop?
Our results (number of shakes on the left/sum of the squares on the right):
46 28264
80 26148
56 19748
86 16612
96 9216
As these results indicate, we were unable to discern a direct correlation. In the early sets, it does seem that increased shaking produced greater electricity, but our two highest shake totals invalidated such a conclusion. Similarly, there is nothing in the data set that would indicate an inverse relationship. It is likely that such inconclusive data is the result of nothing more and nothing less than human error. We were charged with mentally counting the number of shakes in each trial, and as the speed increased, this proved a daunting assignment. It would also be proper to note that we also experienced some technical difficulties along the way, as we had to repeat at least one test when the wires attaching the generator the rest of the system became disconnected.
Hopefully our failures here have in no way disrespected the legacy of Michael Faraday. We were unable to validate his law, but given the attention accorded him and the science backing his assertion, such is entirely unnecessary.