Project Description
This was a creative engineering project. We were required to choose any world problem, and to research it and find a solution. My group chose drought. We focused on researching the drought in california. We looked at a couple options, like drip irrigation and dew catching, but quickly settled on a solar desalinator. A desalinator takes the salt out of water. We did a very simple prototype, with basically just a tube connected to two glass bottles. The first bottle, filled with salt water, was surrounded with tin foil to help reflect light onto it. A way that we could have heated the water more would be to have a copper tube sitting inside the bottle to help conduct heat into the water.
Physics Concepts
We did not use any actual equations in this project, but we did use the engineering design cycle. This is a process that helps make a successful design in any situation. The process does not necessarily have to be followed in order, and some steps may be repeated. The steps are:
-Identify need
-Research problem
-Develop possible solutions
-Select a promising solution
-Construct a prototype
-Test and evaluate the prototype
-Communicate design
-Redesign
-Repeat
-Identify need
-Research problem
-Develop possible solutions
-Select a promising solution
-Construct a prototype
-Test and evaluate the prototype
-Communicate design
-Redesign
-Repeat
Reflective
This project was not the most difficult, but it had a lot more weight in the research part of things. One of the best parts of this project was when we finished putting together the presentation because we thought it was well put together. One if the pits of this project was deciding what solution we would use. We disagreed about what we should do. Eventually we worked it out and decided to do the desalinator. Another peak of this project immediately followed when we had the idea of a solar desalinator. We had previously been thinking of using a flame or electricity to heat the water, but we wanted to design something that would not cost a lot of money on a larger scale. So when we thought of the solar heater, we were very happy. Another pit of this project was when we realized that the evaporated water was not collecting on the end of the desalinator. I think we could have fixed this if we set it up differently.