The Windmillionaire

Bradford Taylor, Luis Castellanos, Theo Dockery, Aeron Glover

Our Device

• Used Lego® to construct rotating parts• Manila folder as tube• 3 different sizes of copper wire• Ceramic magnets• Sperry Box as base• Model airplane blade as propeller• Hot Glue/Super Glue/Electric Tape used to

attach materials

Our Windmill

Mechanical and Electrical Aspects• Magnets are attached to

a spinning rod• Propeller spins the rod– Propeller converts the

translational motion of the wind created by the fan to rotational motion

• Four grey Lego rods keep the coil and the rod in place

• Soldered together wire of multiple sizes

Efficiency Calculations

EfficiencyP

P

VIP

AvP

ltheoretica

actual

actual

ltheoretica

%100

2

1 3

Pactual Ptheoretical %Efficiency1.165%

.21 watts

18.028 watts

Design / Construction Issues• Majority of wire got

tangled• Difficulty finding good

wire/magnets• Issues creating a good

coil• Magnets were

orientated incorrectly• Issues with creating a

stable base allowing for the maximum speed/efficiency of our fan

Conclusions

• We struggled to visualize the proper orientation of the magnets

• Our generator generated 3 volts and .07 amperes

• We learned that it took a lot more work and perseverance than we thought it would