Water Turbine School Science Experiment

This hydroelectric power generator has many possibilities for a school science fair project. Here are a few independent variables that can be adjusted in an experiment

• Gear ratio -- I have included four different gears for the generator and turbine to try
• Load resistance -- Drive a set of resistors ranging from 1 Ohm to 1 kOhm
• Water flow rate
• Water height
• Turbine design -- Design your own turbine!

We used this design for my daughter's 7th grade science fair project. This design remixes the turbine designed by Victor Barahona at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:202905, and the parametric gears by Droftarts at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16627. We drove a 3W RGB LED in series with a 3.3 Ohm resistor (wear your sunglasses, these LEDs are bright!)