Generator Experiment

During this experiment, we learned about the correlation between the amount of energy put into the generator and the voltage it produces. Unlike some other experiments, this concept made a great deal of sense to me because the law involved is quite simple. Faraday’s Law states that changing magnetic fluxes through coiled wires generate electricity (currents and voltage).   

More change in magnetic flux results in more change in currents/voltage. So the faster we shake the generator, the more voltage is produced. This type of generator is very sustainable because human energy is being used to produce a greater energy output and has few negative drawbacks other than some arm pain. There should be an upward trend in the amount of voltage generated. The size of the generator made a huge difference in the amount of energy produced as well.

We were provided with a flashlight looking device, that contained a magnet inside that shook back and forth. We were also provided with a NXT battery, robot, a telephone cable and a USB cord.

After assembling and connecting the device to the computer with the USB cord, we began to inspect the VI that we would be working with. The VI measured the voltage produced and graphed time vs. amplitude.

We performed 5 trials in which we shook the tube at a certain rate from extremely slow to extremely fast, counting the number of shakes within a 30 second interval. The in excel we did calculations to determine the sum of the squares of the voltages and repeated this process for each trial.

The graphs we created demonstrated a positive relationship between the number of shakes and the voltage produced. As we increased the number of shakes and put more energy into generator, the voltage recorded increased. This demonstrates Faraday’s Law because the changing magnetic fluxes went from low energy generated in the trial with no shakes to high energy generated in the trial with 100 shakes.