To determine whether the number of blades on the wind turbine changes the amount of electricity or voltage produced, an experiment was carried out using a wind turbine, fan, retort stand, timer and voltage reader (appendix 8). A test for how much voltage was produced from a wind turbine with 4 blades, 8 blades, and 12 blades was carried out 5 times (appendix 2) (appendix 3) (appendix 4). This was repeated 5 times for each number of blades to ensure there were no inconsistencies in the timing or in the voltage readings. By averaging the results from each set of blades, it was discovered less blades create more voltage than more blades.
The hypothesis constructed for this experiment was not supported …show more content…
These were having a retort stand to hold up the wind turbine and the distance between the fan and the turbine. Having a retort stand holding the wind turbine was a problem as the wind turbine was gradually sliding down the stand, meaning it had to be re-measured often. If it weren’t to be re-measure, the results would change as the wind from the fan would be hitting the blades on a different angle. Next time, the wind turbine should be stuck to the retort stand with possibly tape to ensure it does not slide down again. Having the fan and the turbine 40 centimetres away from each other was a problem as it made it difficult to stop the fan and read the voltage at the same time. If the fan wasn't stopped at the same time the voltage was read, either the fan or voltage would proceed, which will alter the voltage produced. This could have been fixed by having one person at the fan turning it off immediately after the 20 seconds, and one person at the voltage reader reading that measurement immediately as well. The modifications of both these problems would improve the quality of the data as in the analysis of the evidence, the voltage from each number of blades was measured for an equal time, therefore this experiment, in order to improve the quality, all the blades should also be measured for an equal time (appendix