13 year old looks at trees, makes solar power breakthrough in science
130 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;31830651]It's not infinite mass, it's enough amounts of mass compressed into a small point, black holes are created when a sun with enough mass compresses itself, black holes don't violate any laws.[/QUOTE]
Alright, well I know enough things to confidently say [B]I don't know enough about physics to argue my side.[/B] I'll recede into Wikipedia until I know enough to do so.
So, the kid put a group of solar cells at odd angles to better take advantage of a low sun, and is called revolutionary? We already do this with mobile arrays.
Hell, looking closer at the picture, the tree thing has more panels than the traditional array, no fucking wonder it's gathering more sun.
[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;31830718]So, the kid put a group of solar cells at odd angles to better take advantage of a low sun, and is called revolutionary? We already do this with mobile arrays.
Hell, looking closer at the picture, the tree thing has more panels than the traditional array, no fucking wonder it's gathering more sun.[/QUOTE]
I don't know, he's got a pretty great increase at 50%. Y'know, considering he's [B]13[/B], and has outclassed pretty much everyone.
[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;31830718]So, the kid put a group of solar cells at odd angles to better take advantage of a low sun, and is called revolutionary? We already do this with mobile arrays.
Hell, looking closer at the picture, the tree thing has more panels than the traditional array, no fucking wonder it's gathering more sun.[/QUOTE]
Maybe I need to get out more but I've never seen solar panels arranged like this. And the area I live in has quite a few properties with solar panel arrays of various sizes.
So unless people can produce pictures of this arrangement in widespread use before this kid did his research, I have to wonder about their credibility.
[QUOTE=Cone;31830849]I don't know, he's got a pretty great increase at 50%. Y'know, considering he's [B]13[/B], and has outclassed pretty much everyone.[/QUOTE]It's a thirty three percent increase because he added more solar panels to the tree. Hardly fucking revolutionary.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;31830873]Maybe I need to get out more but I've never seen solar panels arranged like this. And the area I live in has quite a few properties with solar panel arrays of various sizes.
So unless people can produce pictures of this arrangement in widespread use before this kid did his research, I have to wonder about their credibility.[/QUOTE]
The closest I've seen to this arrangement was a set of four 1x1 foot panel on pivots which followed the sun, which was used for powering an emergency telephone in a small forest.
And a similar achievement has been made by solar panels, shaped and directed like leaves. But that was just increasing of surface area which created a higher, longer lasting energy production. Even though it looks nothing like this.
Even then, this is a very inefficient design, the "trunk" takes up precious space were solar cells can be.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;31830873]Maybe I need to get out more but I've never seen solar panels arranged like this. [/QUOTE]
That's because this arrangement, with panels at odd angles with lots of dead space, is extremely inefficient. The most efficient solar panel array is one that has a bunch of panels clustered together, angled perpendicularly to the sun and moving to stay at the correct angle. That's why I'm confused as to how it can possibly be more efficient, and what it's being compared to, because simple physics says it doesn't work.
[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;31830900]It's a thirty three percent increase because he added more solar panels to the tree. Hardly fucking revolutionary.[/QUOTE]
People wouldn't be calling it revolutionary if it wasn't.
Consider that maybe, despite already having the technology to do so, it's still good to know why it works. That's what this kid has done at - I remind you - thirteen. He's displayed initiative and has discovered something that nobody else at the time knew, and has bettered our situation in the energy crisis.
That's pretty fucking good at thirteen. I was just fapping at that age.
[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;31825803]He did this on his own too, no help from school what-so-ever. The kid has natural talent learning the Fibonacci Sequence at that age on his own.[/QUOTE]
Haha.
I must have natural talent then. I used the fibonacci sequence to profess my love for my current partner even earlier than 13, they thought it was cute (we both enjoy math). My favorite line of theirs was:
"You're my complex conjugate, Collin, and together we're real."
If you're curious I used an extremely corny line saying how our love could be compared to recursively defined function blah blah blah where 'n' was the number of seconds we've shared together. It was nerdy.
[editline]19th August 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;31830900]It's a thirty three percent increase because he added more solar panels to the tree. Hardly fucking revolutionary.[/QUOTE]
QFT
[QUOTE=Collin665;31830970]Haha.
I must have natural talent then. I used the fibonacci sequence to profess my love for my current partner even earlier than 13, they thought it was cute (we both enjoy math). My favorite line of theirs was:
"You're my complex conjugate, Collin, and together we're real."
[editline]19th August 2011[/editline]
QFT[/QUOTE]
Wow. You actually had a romance going there, man. All I got was a girl that nobody liked who was ridiculously stupid.
I like intelligent people. The only issue is they hate pessimism and I'm pretty pessimistic, so its not perfect, I have to hold back a lot of things ;p
Anyway, I think this might be more of a thing where [B][I]in his testing[/I][/B] the tree shape was better. But notice in his set-up that the straight line set just sits there. In real life we use sets of solar arrays that track the sun using motors and are far more efficient.
[QUOTE=Cone;31830958]People wouldn't be calling it revolutionary if it wasn't.
Consider that maybe, despite already having the technology to do so, it's still good to know why it works. That's what this kid has done at - I remind you - thirteen. He's displayed initiative and has discovered something that nobody else at the time knew, and has bettered our situation in the energy crisis.
That's pretty fucking good at thirteen. I was just fapping at that age.[/QUOTE]
Well, it's "revolutionary" because of all this media hype. As for initiative, he can be commended for that, he did what he thought was right, and went on to complete it. That's the only thing good about this, despite all the flaws in his idea.
[url=http://www.odec.ca/projects/2006/full6e2/index.htm]Here's another similar "tree" design which fell into obscurity.[/url]
[url=http://www.macslab.com/optsolar.html]And here is an optimal orientation graph based on trees.[/url]
And that kid will never see a dime from his discovery.
[QUOTE=geoface;31831107]And that kid will never see a dime from his discovery.[/QUOTE]
That might matter if it were worth at least ten cents to begin with.
Lol my Ecology teacher ranted that this needed to happen. I bet he'd rage if he saw this.
In the future, 20% of the trees shall be fake and made using solar panels.
the fibonacci sequence for those who aren't familiar with it:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0tLbl5LrJ8[/media]
I need to go outside more.
[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;31825933]Less than [B]8%[/B] of the entire worlds population even knows of it and the majority of kids in the US & UK couldn't give two shits about learning something like that. It takes someone who's dedicated, no matter how easy it is.[/QUOTE]
I refues to believe such a depressing statement, how can schools not teach kids a simple sequence algorithm that basically goes, for example, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc and is so intrinsically important in so many things, even art?
[QUOTE=wewt!;31835553]I refues to believe such a depressing statement, how can schools not teach kids a simple sequence algorithm that basically goes, for example, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc and is so intrinsically important in so many things, even art?[/QUOTE]
cheese
[QUOTE=sam.clarke;31827290]Kinda funny how an organism which thrives off absorbing a maximum amount of sunlight hasn't been studied further in solar energy. After all, trees have had a few million years head start in maximising their uptake.
Congrats to the kid, I hope he patents the idea and makes a living from his idea.[/QUOTE]
Plants aren't that efficient at converting light energy into chemical energy; something like 3% efficiency.
to be fair this would be a lot more efficient in places where motors and engineers to control them aren't practical, like portable arrays and home systems
[QUOTE=Jallen;31826573]Solar panels do not just produce a certain amount of energy and thats it, they are a long term investment. It's impossible to say that the trunk would likely take more energy than you would gain from using this because it depends entirely on how long you use it for and the intensity of the light there.[/QUOTE]
make the trunk out of solar panels too :v:
[QUOTE=Sanius;31825673]It took a 13 year-old kid to figure this out?[/QUOTE]
I'm going to take a guess: Children who aren't experienced with standard math or science in a specific area are more likely to think outside of the box (as they have no ideas what the current box contains or is), thus leading to more creative and attempted ideas.
I want a son like that.
I still didn't see any hard facts about this. How can an arangement like that be more efficient than 100% of the solar panel area getting light?
That makes no sense.
[QUOTE=redBadger;31825755]Holy shit.
Sometimes the most obvious things are the most obscure.[/QUOTE]
Hey I bet you've never even heard of it, it's pretty obscure.
this kid
is so getting laid some day
[QUOTE=Kalibos;31832021]the fibonacci sequence for those who aren't familiar with it:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0tLbl5LrJ8[/media][/QUOTE]
This video is very good.
It explains so many mathematical things without using any text or speech
And i haven't done anything for science, yet i'm 16, shame on me <:(
[QUOTE=ButtsexV17;31837927]to be fair this would be a lot more efficient in places where motors and engineers to control them aren't practical, like portable arrays and home systems[/QUOTE]
Why aren't motors and computer controls practical in those scenarios? It generates its own power, a simple computer can track the sun and it can use a bit of power to activate a motor to turn. It's still more efficient than a sprawling tree of solar panels.
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