Objective
In this experiment, our objective was to derive a relationship for amount of voltage that could be produced by means of a manually operated generator. We would do this by calculating the voltage produced from five separate sets of shaking. In other words, we mean to see how efficiently the shake generator can convert kinetic energy into electric energy.
Experiment Procedure
Before we could look for a relationship between the kinetic energy input into the generator, and the voltage output, we needed a reliable set of data. To obtain a reliable measurement of the kinetic energy input, we counted the number of shakes performed in a strict 30 second time limit. To obtain a reliable measurement of the voltage output, we used a robot computer programming. When we shook the generator, the AC current created by the magnetic field disruption was detected and accurately recorded by the robot and generator. This happened every 1.5 seconds in a 30 second time span, giving us a set of 20 measurements per shake session. Once a set of measurements was recorded, we used Microsoft Excel to square each measurement, and added our results to get a total measurement of real electric output in Volts (V). This could be shown by the following equation.
| Total Voltage= Σ [ (m1*m1) : (m20*m20)] |
This procedure was repeated 5 times with varying numbers of shakes (kinetic energy inputs) to produce the following set of data.
# of Shakes: 84 80 82 115 76
Voltage (V): 98.100 76.298 86.706 130.410 32.094
Conclusion
Using Excel, we were able to plot our data onto the graph above. Although the scatter plot makes visible a certain margin of error, the trend line shows a relationship between the number of shakes and the voltage produced. The positive slope of the trend line tells us that the more kinetic energy, or number of shakes performed on the generator, the more voltage output will be produced. This makes sense, because generally more input should yield more output in any system. The slope of the trend line tells us even more. According to Excel, the equation of the trend line is y=1.8913x – 80.578. Here we can see the slope can be rounded to about 2. Slope is rise over run, so this number allows us to conclude that the generator produced an average of about 2 more volts of electricity per addition shake performed on it.