Windmill

Background
In order to understand how a windmill works, you must first understand how electromagnetic induction works. Electromagnetic induction is when a magnet changes the magnetic field of a series of wire coils. This change in magnetic field induces a voltage, and hence induces a current. All of this happens in the generator of the windmill. The generator we build consists of a series of magnets revolving around coils of wire when the system spins from the wind.

Materials, Methods, and Construction
From a construction stand point, our turbine was build out of a 2 liter soda bottle, which we cut slits into to create fan blades that protruded out of the system. These flap like structures collected the wind when we turned on the fan. We wrapped wire coils and connected them together with electrical tape. It is important to make sure the wires are all facing the same direction, so current can move throughout the entire system. We put the wire coils on a circular wooden platform, and put the magnets on another wooden platform. We put a small barrier between the two, so there would be space and the magnets wouldn’t stick to the wire, allowing the object to spin freely. To connect the whole apparatus, we strung a string through the top of the bottle, down through the bottle and down both wooden platforms. We hung the bottle from the top of a cardboard box, so the windmill could stand stationary.

Results
We ended up generating 0.003 amperes of voltage. However, we tried making our fan blades larger by adding cut pieces of soda bottles, and this unfortunately generated less electricity. We were not able to light a lightbulb, we would have needed 10 times the amount of electricity.

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Reflection
I think if we had reduced the amount of friction of the system, it would have rotated easier and generated more electricity. We ran through a couple bumps in the road. One of which was when we  were attaching the platforms of wire and magnets, the magnets wanted to stick to the wire, and the system resisted to move. We  fixed this by creating a larger barrier between the magnets and wire. Also, every time we turned our fan on, the windmill would fall off its base after about 4 seconds. We realized that each individual piece of the system needed to be held together down the center. To remedy this, we threaded a string down the cap, through the bottle, and through both the platforms. After this, the windmill was stationary when the wind blew it. Problem solved.