Engineering project
Blogpost #2: Define and Inquire
What is this engineering task?
Building a toy or device to show energy transfer.
- steam?
- windmill （spinning?)
- chemical energy – mechanical energy.
- alcohol lamp.
- making a holder for the windmill.
- Windmill: plastic, paper, aluminum foil?
- making a windmill or having one that’s already put together?
- using hot glue guns or tape?
- needed to cover around the alcohol lamp so that the air doesn’t fade away as it rises.
There is no real target audience for my design, I think it’s better for academic teaching because it’s definitely not a toy, unless the mechanical energy can turn into other energy that is able to move to light up something.
The size will need to be measured accurately, in which the height of the windmill can’t be too close to the burning alcohol lamp, especially if using plastic or paper. And the amount of steam might not be enough to pump the windmill, and it depends on how big the flask is, how much water, and how close it is to the windmill. Using the theory, when heating up the beaker, how do we know, that the windmill is spinning because of the steam rising up instead of the rising air temperature? Also, adjusting the weight of the blades is also a problem as in making it is not too heavy for it to spin without electric power.
Blogpost #2: Develop and Plan
I will need to learn how the blades of a windmill make it the easiest to spin through online research or observing those toy windmills. Maybe connecting each piece is also challenging, the use of hot glue guns, and how to make it stable enough. To be more specific, a flask with a smaller hole would be better than a beaker that releases the hot air too much, so building an open lid can also be helpful to make sure the hot air goes straight up instead of losing a lot on the way.
Class I: Finding materials and keep doing research.
Class II: Building the structure to hold the windmill/building the windmill.
Class III: Adjust the height with the alcohol lamp, and the angle of the blades to make sure it is not having too much resistance from the air.
Class IV: First test, if it didn’t work, find the error, fix it, try again. If it worked, try making it spin for a longer time in a moderate tempo, not falling off or tilting, and making the design more pleasant.
Class V: N test, try adding some art designs on, and make the final changes.
Blogpost #3: Create and Improve
Take at least 2 pictures every class of your prototypes.
Cut curved plastic out of plastic cups to make a windmill, and stick it onto the strawl. But the circled part keeps falling off.
First test, the windmill wasn’t able to spin and was even melted by the flame.
I decided to make one with aluminum foil so that it’s much lighter. Also folded the blades a little bit to reduce the resistance.
First test with tin foil, I decided to make the stand higher in case the same thing happens (although it was aluminum foil).
Didn’t really spin, and fell off after. Coral and Olivia suggested flipping it around.
Decided to flip it. So that it can catch more hot air.
Another test, I think the windmill might be too high that there might be not enough hot air, so I put my box sideways to shorten the distance between the flame and the windmill, and it worked!
Blogpost #4: Reflect and Share
Even worked better, always spinning, moderate tempo, not too tilted, and didn’t fall off.
Although I changed various versions of the windmill, I think building it is not really a problem. If we were to aim for perfection, I can spend more time to have it more accurate and more pleasant in looks. I actually had many models of windmills, just in case one broke, and I think it really helped improve the process of building another. The little wooden stick in the middle is also very important to my product, as we know triangles are the most stable shapes, and here it helps to support the stick on top so it wouldn’t shake and affect the movement, and fall off easily
As for improvements, I can use a thin cylinder to make the curves on each blade the same, or at least almost the same, so that the speed of the windmill spinning can be controlled. I can also transform the windmill’s mechanical energy into other energies, and maybe turn it into a tool or toy.
This product can be used in building toy airplanes, or just a fan, but will need to further define how to make the air come out. But it doesn’t have a good chance of surviving in big events, the hot air and blades with aluminum foil have not been proven work forever.