Science Project for School

SHL

SHL

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My daughter is interested in making the following project for school. One thing I don't understand is how can that DC motor power the light bulb and the water pump? Based on similar projects, others have used a separate battery to power the pump, leaving the DC motor to power the light bulb. What do you guys think?

 
So, can't see the diagram but what do you mean by dc motor powering a light bulb? Both motors and light bulbs are "loads" i.e. they consume power not generate. If you are talking about a generator ( which may look similar to a motor but it generates electricity via static magnets and movement by a external force then sure ).

You can have both in either series or parallel but it will depend on the strength of your battery. Both loads will consume the same battery output so if its insufficient, one or both won't operate.

But, if its a simple dc motor and a filament lightbulb ( not led ), there's actually a chance both will work, just not optimally i.e.: slow motor and low light bulb.
 
Kosmik said:
So, can't see the diagram but what do you mean by dc motor powering a light bulb? Both motors and light bulbs are "loads" i.e. they consume power not generate. If you are talking about a generator ( which may look similar to a motor but it generates electricity via static magnets and movement by a external force then sure ).

You can have both in either series or parallel but it will depend on the strength of your battery. Both loads will consume the same battery output so if its insufficient, one or both won't operate.

But, if its a simple dc motor and a filament lightbulb ( not led ), there's actually a chance both will work, just not optimally i.e.: slow motor and low light bulb.
Click to expand...
Both bulb and water pump are connected directly to the motor as per the video, there is apparently no battery being used but I feel it's being hidden. I don't think that this project will work as there’s no way the wheel in this video is spinning fast enough to power that pump and the light on a basic small DC Motor.
 
SHL said:
My daughter is interested in making the following project for school. One thing I don't understand is how can that DC motor power the light bulb and the water pump? Based on similar projects, others have used a separate battery to power the pump, leaving the DC motor to power the light bulb. What do you guys think?

Click to expand...
If you run it like a proper pumping solution, you'd need to turn off the lights to pump the water back up, or have an external solution to do so.
 
If it has free energy in the title, the video is a scam for views.. the water from the bottle isn't even falling into the bottle caps to make the wheel spin, in the "working" b roll shots..

What is the aim/goal of the science project so we can hopefully find you something actually useful..?
 
Lupus said:
If you run it like a proper pumping solution, you'd need to turn off the lights to pump the water back up, or have an external solution to do so.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what I wanted to confirm. The pump would have to be connected to it's own battery to continuously refill the reservoir. The video is falsely promoting "free energy."
 
SHL said:
Yes, that's what I wanted to confirm. The pump would have to be connected to it's own battery to continuously refill the reservoir.
Click to expand...
Yup it would need to be, as the wheel would not generate enough power to power itself and the light.
When I did this back in standard 5, it was a DC motor to power the light hooked up to the wheel, but I didn't have the pump to refill the reservoir, I explained the concept and said honestly the time and resources wasn't worth the effort... I did get a B instead of an A cause of that statement ;-). So maybe don't do that.
 
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WAslayer said:
If it has free energy in the title, the video is a scam for views.. the water from the bottle isn't even falling into the bottle caps to make the wheel spin, in the "working" b roll shots..

What is the aim/goal of the science project so we can hopefully find you something actually useful..?
Click to expand...
-Planning based on IDMEC.
-Poster based on planning.
-Make your model.
-Your chosen topic must be in the form of an investigative question.

Energy and Change: (Options for project)
1)Solar Oven.
2)Wind Turbine Model.
3)Balloon Powered Car.
4)Electric circuit powering a system to produce sound, light or movement energy.
 
SHL said:
My daughter is interested in making the following project for school. One thing I don't understand is how can that DC motor power the light bulb and the water pump? Based on similar projects, others have used a separate battery to power the pump, leaving the DC motor to power the light bulb. What do you guys think?

Click to expand...
I got a little kit from PNA that does this with wind. its a battery powered fan that blows another fan, which powers an LED. It does work but needs batteries for the fan. You could modify the kit so that the fan is hydro powered as the LED needs very little power.

To make it extra sciency you could measure the voltage\amps coming off the motor to show how much you get... then increase the flow to show how you can generate more power with more flow.
 
Technically speaking, the tank refill doesn't require a pump - or much of one - if the flow is correctly primed.... Atmospheric pressure + gravity are quite capable of achieving flow

That being said, perpetual motion is a scam and no closed system will achieve this.
 
SHL said:
Yes, that's what I wanted to confirm. The pump would have to be connected to it's own battery to continuously refill the reservoir. The video is falsely promoting "free energy."
Click to expand...
Yeah I got the vid to load now. That's a classical fake perpetual energy. You can see via the spout water is not properly interacting with the buckets , not to mention there is bucket/surface interaction which would slow any momentum as well.

The "bad" idea would be that gravity would force the water to strike the buckets, creating a rotation to the dynamo ( that was the word I was looking for earlier ) , which would generate electricity and power the light bulb and supposedly the pump. Not going to happen. Led's normally need at least around 1.6V to glow and any form of pump would be a major drain on the system. If you think energy terms, any gains you have with gravity are lost by spinning the wheel ( also interacting with the surface water ) , emitting light energy via the led and then trying o use the pump to overcome not just the same gravity force being applied but also the gravity force on the water IN the bottle as well.

This person has hooked up a powersoure to the LED and the motor to DRIVE the wheel and a separate or similar power source to power the pump. Its not a generator, this is a fancy fountain with power cells hidden behind or under it.
 
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rustypup said:
Technically speaking, the tank refill doesn't require a pump - or much of one - if the flow is correctly primed.... Atmospheric pressure + gravity are quite capable of achieving flow

That being said, perpetual motion is a scam and no closed system will achieve this.
Click to expand...
Yup, energy required to pump the water backup will always negate any gains you supposedly get.
 
Hook the wheel up to this
1787560577679.png
Or something similar, make sure it spins the opposite way it would normally spin to generate power and hook the cables to the light bulb.
Wind, water, hamster doesn't matter
 
Hmm this got me thinking, if you hook the motor to a buck converter
make.net.za

DC-DC Buck/Boost Converter - TO-220 3.3V • Make Electronics

Package Includes 1x DC-DC Buck/Boost Converter - TO-220 3.3V
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To try regulate the power output a bit better, as the flowing water over the wheel would fluctuate the voltage, then a small super capacitor in parallel to the buck converter
That would kinda make it run smoother and prevent any damage to the bulb.
 
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