Materials
Flash light, Colored Lenses, Ruler, Solar Panel and Lego Robot
Objective
The objective of lab was to test in trials how light intensity and light color act as variables in a solar cell’s efficiency of generating a voltage.
How we did it
The way this experiment works is simple. We would aim are our light source (the flashlight), at our solar panel which was attached to our lego robots. The solar panel would measure the length of the beams that the light gives of when illuminating. Before starting the experiment we tested our solar panel by put the flashlight at a distance of zero centimeters and started the program just to see if the device was able to measure the different fluctuations of the wavelengths. Once we had a successful run we then were assigned to run the test from three different distances without using any color filters over the light, and then after three tests from a controlled distance using three different colors. My partner and I chose the distances of 1, 3, and 5 cm for our distance tests. What you will see when looking at our graphs is how much longer the wavelengths would measure when aiming the light from a farther distance from the solar panel, and when closer to the panel the wave lengths would be shorter. Through these first three runs, we were able to solve that the relationship between wave length and distance, is the fact that the longer the light needs to travel, the longer the wavelengths need to be to travel.
| 0.537 | 0.409 | 0.422 | 0.524 | 0.486 | 0.524 | 0.486 | 0.46 |
| 0.537 | 0.422 | 0.422 | 0.473 | 0.46 | 0.473 | 0.511 | 0.537 |
| 0.588 | 0.434 | 0.486 | 0.486 | 0.46 | 0.524 | 0.473 | 0.486 |
| 0.588 | 0.409 | 0.499 | 0.486 | 0.434 | 0.447 | 0.486 | 0.55 |
| 0.575 | 0.46 | 0.46 | 0.447 | 0.524 | 0.447 | 0.524 | 0.46 |
| 0.499 | 0.499 | 0.396 | 0.434 | 0.447 | 0.537 | 0.499 | 0.537 |
| 0.499 | 0.409 | 0.409 | 0.46 | 0.486 | 0.524 | 0.537 | 0.537 |
| 0.55 | 0.473 | 0.434 | 0.473 | 0.447 | 0.434 | 0.447 | 0.46 |
| 0.486 | 0.511 | 0.473 | 0.473 | 0.434 | 0.46 | 0.473 | 0.524 |
| 0.563 | 0.46 | 0.499 | 0.499 | 0.524 | 0.537 | 0.447 | 0.499 |
| 0.524 | 0.499 | 0.486 | 0.447 | 0.499 | 0.524 | 0.537 | 0.447 |
| 0.601 | 0.473 | 0.383 | 0.434 | 0.524 | 0.46 | 0.511 | 0.46 |
| 0.537 | 0.434 | 0.409 | 0.486 | 0.422 | 0.511 | 0.55 | 0.55 |
| 0.588 | 0.409 | 0.383 | 0.499 | 0.486 | 0.537 | 0.499 | 0.499 |
| 0.499 | 0.486 | 0.473 | 0.409 | 0.422 | 0.447 | 0.55 | 0.46 |
| 0.588 | 0.486 | 0.383 | 0.396 | 0.511 | 0.486 | 0.46 | 0.486 |
| 0.563 | 0.486 | 0.409 | 0.434 | 0.524 | 0.422 | 0.499 | 0.46 |
| 0.575 | 0.409 | 0.447 | 0.383 | 0.434 | 0.524 | 0.434 | 0.537 |
| 0.588 | 0.473 | 0.46 | 0.396 | 0.499 | 0.447 | 0.46 | 0.486 |
| 0.55 | 0.486 | 0.383 | 0.499 | 0.473 | 0.486 | 0.486 | 0.537 |
| 0.563 | 0.499 | 0.422 | 0.396 | 0.537 | 0.473 | 0.499 | 0.46 |
| 0.499 | 0.434 | 0.396 | 0.422 | 0.537 | 0.524 | 0.55 | 0.511 |
| 0.575 | 0.473 | 0.37 | 0.473 | 0.46 | 0.499 | 0.499 | 0.511 |
| 0.499 | 0.486 | 0.396 | 0.434 | 0.447 | 0.473 | 0.447 | 0.537 |
| 0.511 | 0.473 | 0.473 | 0.409 | 0.46 | 0.524 | 0.486 | 0.55 |
| 0.575 | 0.499 | 0.383 | 0.409 | 0.473 | 0.537 | 0.434 | 0.46 |
| 0.537 | 0.473 | 0.396 | 0.396 | 0.473 | 0.422 | 0.46 | 0.473 |
| 0.486 | 0.422 | 0.409 | 0.409 | 0.511 | 0.524 | 0.563 | 0.537 |
| 0.537 | 0.486 | 0.473 | 0.46 | 0.473 | 0.434 | 0.46 | 0.499 |
| 0.511 | 0.396 | 0.396 | 0.434 | 0.447 | 0.422 | 0.46 | 0.55 |
| 0.526709677 | 0.396 | 0.409 | 0.434 | 0.4665 | 0.473 | 0.473 | 0.55 |
| Control | 1cm | 3cm | 5cm | Orange | Blue | Pink | Green |
This is our data table for all the trials we did during our experiment. When you look at the table you will see all the different wavelengths measured by the solar panel from the three different distances, and the three different colors and how they effected the lights wave lengths.
After running our three distance trials with the control being the light source, we then focus attention on how the color of the light would effect the wavelengths from a controlled distance. The controlled distance for light that we chose was 0 cm. When you look at our data they all seem very close in comparison. When looking through the data closely however, you are able to see how the green and blue lights are more similar to each other and the same goes for the orange and pink lights. The blue and green colored lights had longer wave lengths when running the experiment. This brought us to the conclusion that the cooler colors (cooler as in temperature base not style), put off longer beams off light as apposed to warmer color such as the pink and the orange. This was a strange result because when looking up if the data was accurate, I read that warmer colors were suppose to have longer wavelengths as apposed to the cooler colors, Red being the longest wave lengths, and purple being the shortest. This was very disappointing to discover that the data was off in our test. The reason I think we were unable to see enough change in the data was because we used zero cm as our distance. If we were to do this experiment again, I would choose a further distance to allow the light to travel and see if the results would come out in a different manner.
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