Special topics in Physics: Electricity and Magnetism
Ken A. Smith · SPARK Scholarship at Parkland (Parkland College) · 2011
With all the problems humanity faces, every solution seems to require more and more energy. Visionaries and scientists alike seem to agree that one of humanity's major hurdles in the future is providing for the enormous need of clean renewable energy. While many mediums to transfer energy exist, electricity is by far the most popular, with petroleum a close second. For electricity, many techniques exist for its generation, but the most common is some type of electromechanical generator. With the increasing need for clean energy, more generating devices will be needed. In order to facilitate this increase it is prudent to understand the electrical-mechanical workings of such a generator in order to better design, build, and repair such devices. This paper will develop some general equations for one possible design for such a device, and use specific values used to calculate a theoretical output. The ultimate goal is to build a working model that matches the design of the formulas derived to see how close a proof of concept matches theory, and to see what differences may result.