The solar panel experiment that we did in class on March 20 was a good learning experience.  The experiment tested the energy absorption of different light frequencies that varied in color.  We also tested the differing intensity of light at various distances.  This part of the experiment was done first to test the energy absorption of the solar panels that we used.  The first trial was without any light and it yielded the lowest energy levels.  After that we did trials with the light source a varying distances.  We tested the solar panels with the light source up against the light, then at a distance of 10 cm, 20 cm and 30 cm.  As the light source got farther away from the panels the average energy went down.  This is likely because the farther that the light source was from the solar panel the more that the photons spread out and so the less intense the focus of photovoltaic energy was on the solar panel.  This part of the experiment was rather straightforward.  The table below displays the data from those trials.

For the second part of the experiment we tested three different light frequencies.  We used red, green, and pink light for each trial respectively.  This experiment tested which frequency of light was best for converting photons into energy.  Each trial was done at a distance of 0cm between the light source and the solar panel.  The results showed that Red, the color with the lowest frequency of all visible light, had the lowest energy output.  The average energy output from the red light over 10 seconds was .35.  The next highest frequency of the colors we tested was Green, which measured an average of .44.  Lastly, the pink light generated the most energy because it has the shortest wavelength and highest frequency of the colors we tested.  Pink measured at .49.

This experiment was important to do because it demonstrated the different effect of light frequency on solar energy.  The higher the frequency the more energy that can be gained from the light.  Red had the largest wavelength and lowest frequency of the light we tested which is why it yielded the least energy.