Investigate any relationship present between the distance between a solar cell and a lamp, and the current output of the solar cell, at a fixed voltage.

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Solar Cell Experiment

Introduction:

Solar Cells convert light energy to electrical energy, so are transducers.

Aim 1: To investigate any relationship present between the distance between a solar cell and a lamp, and the current output of the solar cell, at a fixed voltage.

Aim 2: To investigate any relationship present between the power supplied to a bulb, and the current of a solar panel, at a fixed distance apart.

When investigating a solar cell, there are several variables we could investigate. Below, I have analysed all the variables that could be investigated, and evaluated which one I will investigate. When considering what variables of the light I could investigate, several things come to mind.

Variable 1: Light

Light has different colours, and different coloured lights are known to have different frequencies. This in turn would cause the different coloured lights to emit different levels of power. We know that this is the case because when combining the two below formulae, we can see that energy and frenquency are related.

Wavelength x Frequency= Wave Speed

Planck’s Constant x frequency= Energy

The second formula states that frequency is directly proportional to energy.

When rearranging the first formula to display frequency as the subject of the formula, and then substituting the value for frenquency given (wave speed/wavelength) into the second formula, we get:

Planck ’s constant x wavespeed/wavelength= energy

Using this formula, we can find out what kinds of light give out the most energy. As all light travels at the same speed (300,000 m/s), we know that the wavelength of the light will determine how much energy is given out from the light. The wavelength and frequency are directly related in light, because both multiplied must give a product of 300,000 m/s.

We can gather by the formula that lights with a smaller wavelength will give out more energy, because when a smaller number is divided by the wavespeed and multiplied by the constant, a higher value for the energy will be given than if a large wavelength figure is divided by the wavespeed, to give a smaller figure, which when multiplied by the constant gives a smaller amount of energy.

This means that light with a small wavelength and thus high frequency will give out more energy that lights with a large wavelength and low frequency.

To investigate this variable would be very difficult, because it is very hard to know the frequency and wavelength of a certain colour of light without using extremely expensive and sensitive equipment, which I do not have available. Therefore, I will not investigate this variable, and keep it to a constant in my experiment by only using 1 colour of light.

Variable 2: Distance

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Another variable that could be investigated with a solar cell is the distance between the solar cell and the light source, and the effect upon the energy transferred to the solar cell when varying distances between the solar cell and light source.

Distance direct affects the intensity of the light, and as distance increases, the light intensity decreases. We can see this in the below formula which shows us to what extent the distance between the light source and solar cell affects the energy supplied.

Light Intensity= Power/area

The value area will be replaced with ...

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