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Hydropower vs Windpower
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deleted-392082
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Hydropower vs Windpower
Hello Im a student working on a science project and I need help. I have a set up where there is water falling on to a turbine motor and wind blowing on to a wind turbine motor, but there's one thing that troubles me: The amount of force. I know for a fact that if I drop water on one arm and have wind blowing on another I would feel the water have more impact because of the density. So if I drop water on a turbine and wind on a turbine then the water wheel would make more energy. So that leads me to question 1.does it matter if the water and the wind hit their own turbine with the same force and if so 2.how do I make the water and the wind hit each turbine with the same force. I am using a 15W fan and a 15W pump but this anomaly still troubles me. Thank you for your time and please respond if you can
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LeungWilley
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Re: Hydropower vs Windpower
Hi friesaj,
Excellent observation! I think I understand where you are going with this but let me try to restate it in another way.
You experiment is to compare the efficiency of a hydro turbine and wind turbine by looking at the energy input vs energy output of the two system? Now, to address your question regarding density and the force of a unit of wind vs a unit of water. You are absolutely correct in stating a unit of water, since it had the higher densities, will have more punch than air in a given volume.
However, and here's the good news, we are looking at energy (watts) so as long as you are not changing medium, i.e. changing how the power is transmitted, mass is cancelled out since it is both on the input side / output side of this equation. (An example of changing medium would be to use the 15W Fan and blow it on the water and then observing how much hydro power you can generate. If I understand your experiment correctly, you have a water pump for input to the hydroturbine and the fan for the wind turbine.)
Hopefully, that helps clarify it a little bit.
Good Luck with you experiment!
Please let us know if there's anything else that we can help with.
WIlley
Excellent observation! I think I understand where you are going with this but let me try to restate it in another way.
You experiment is to compare the efficiency of a hydro turbine and wind turbine by looking at the energy input vs energy output of the two system? Now, to address your question regarding density and the force of a unit of wind vs a unit of water. You are absolutely correct in stating a unit of water, since it had the higher densities, will have more punch than air in a given volume.
However, and here's the good news, we are looking at energy (watts) so as long as you are not changing medium, i.e. changing how the power is transmitted, mass is cancelled out since it is both on the input side / output side of this equation. (An example of changing medium would be to use the 15W Fan and blow it on the water and then observing how much hydro power you can generate. If I understand your experiment correctly, you have a water pump for input to the hydroturbine and the fan for the wind turbine.)
Hopefully, that helps clarify it a little bit.
Good Luck with you experiment!
Please let us know if there's anything else that we can help with.
WIlley