Experiments: Hydropower
Experiment setup
With this turbine with integrated generator, available e.g. at common online retailers, some tinkering talent, a cut open PET bottle and hose material from the hardware store, different experiments for voltage generation with water can be carried out.
Assembly video: https://youtube.com/shorts/tYK3Ik25I4E
Air bubbles in the hose hinder the rotation of the turbine, so it is best to fill the water in quickly and in a gush.
Experiment 1 Using falling water to make an LED glow
An LED with series resistor is connected and made to glow by the water.https://youtube.com/shorts/C15yBcxem64?feature=share
By raising and lowering the water inflow, it can be shown that the brightness of the LED depends on the drop height.
Experiment 2 Measure voltage or power as a function of altitude
By connecting a voltmeter (either directly or via 1kOhm resistor), you can show that the voltage (or power) changes with height.
https://youtube.com/shorts/20JS2jTEyJ4
https://youtube.com/shorts/yukXNsk_a2A
With available equipment (e.g. Pasco sensors) one can also measure power/energy directly and try to generate e.g. 1mWh.
Experiment 3 Operation at the water tap
In most halls, you can also connect the turbine directly to the water tap on the console. To do this, it is best to change the tap attachment there. Then you can easily make a light bulb glow and thus illustrate the power plant with several hundred meters of height difference.
Video links and simulations
- Sendung mit der Maus from the pumped storage plant - https://kinder.wdr.de/tv/die-sendung-mit-der-maus/av/video-wie-funktioniert-ein-pumpspeicherwerk-100.html
Unfortunately with errors in the technical language (force/balance instead of energy) - This ScienceSlam explains energy conservation/energy devaluation among other things at the hydroelectric power plant. Unfortunately very strong focus on energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRMnpV5E5J8
- With the phet simulation https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/energy-forms-and-changes/latest/energy-forms-and-changes_de.html one can visualize the transformations, but comes only limited close to the real interrelations.
- In many collections you can also find this experiment, as a model for voltage. However, it can also be used to show that a larger height difference leads to a faster turning of the water wheel and thus height energy is really converted into kinetic energy here.
Lizensbedingungen
Alle Versuche sind mit der Creative Commons Lizenz ( CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) lizenziert.