Shake, shake, shake.

If that annoying song is now stuck in your head, my evil plan was successful. I win.

Why don’t you read about our little battery-free flashlight experiment to try and drive it out? If not, well played and read on anyway.

During class last week, we paired up for an experiment regarding power level changes when a flashlight is shaken.

http://www.thelandofozzie.com/2011_04_01_archive.html

Yep, that’s what I thought too. Turns out there are flashlights that contain no batteries and are powered by magnets. Allow me to s’plain:

http://www.generationgear.com/products/shakelight_technology.html

Or rather, allow me to insert a link to the very product we used. Hence, when we shook the flashlights, a readout appeared on the computer of the various power levels. The idea was to count the number of shakes and then vary the speed of the shaking to see if the generated power increased.

We attempted five different types of shaking and then graphed the results. The results are shown as the sum of the squared data of each shake trial.

As predicted, the graph shows that the frequency of the shaking increased the amount of energy produced by the magnet passing through the coil.

Sum of squares

Now this experiment has great real-world application. Not only do I now know how shakelights work, I’m also a more enlightened consumer who can go out and buy a shake light.

Next time the power goes out, I’m prepared with a flashlight powered by yours truly and not a little pink bunny.

http://xxgdogg17xx.deviantart.com/art/energizer-bunny-184083973

Heh heh heh.