My aim is to find out what the best design is for a water wheel. The factors that will affect what happens in my investigation are; Surface area of the blades, which are on the wheelSize of those bladesAmount of water used

Apparatus:  Spindle        

        2 Supports

        String

        Mass Hanger

        Plastic blades

Pre-made water wheel

Masses

        Water (ml)

        Water tray

        

To set up my investigation, I attached the blades to the water wheel, which was attached to 2 supports. On the water wheel, I attached the string where it would be allowed to wind up easily.  I then got a bottle and carefully measured out different ml of water.

The things I will measure are the amount of water I pour onto the waterwheel and how much string is wind up. By the length of the string wind up, it will determine how fast the wheel spun.

To make my investigation safe, I made sure that the plastic blades we safely secure in the wheel.  When I finished my investigation I made sure that any spilt water was cleaned up in case someone happened to slip on it and injure him or herself.

During my investigation, I found out that the weight of the masses were too heavy to be lift up by the string, which is attached to the end of the wheel.  I think this happened because the force of the water wasn’t strong enough to cause the wheel to turn with power to wind up the string. However, it was strong enough to wind up a piece of string. This meant that I had to change from using 4g masses to using nothing in order to continue with my investigation.

GRAPH NEEDED AND HEADING FOR TABLE

Looking at my results I can see that  

In my investigation, I found that the more water poured onto the wheel, the faster it turns; therefore the more string is wind up. I think this because

My prediction matches my results as

I think that the way I went about doing this investigation was carefully done. When I measured out the amount of water, I made sure that the bottle was on a flat level surface. When measuring the length of string, I carefully marked it out on the string with pen.  This would reduce the chances or me accidentally moving my finger, causing the measurements to be inaccurate.  By doing these things, it makes my results reliable.  

As the results, on my table, are close, it proves that the way I carried out my investigation was consistent as the differences between the amounts of string wound up wasn’t excessive. In order to improve the accuracy of my result, I would have to resort to an electronic means such as a slotted wheel and a photoelectric cell. This means that the string wouldn’t stretch or overlap another coil, which could of happened in my investigation.

The only anomaly that I faced was that the masses couldn’t be lifted because the force of the water on the wheel wasn’t greater enough to overcome the weights. If the diameter of the wheel was bigger than the torque would have been greater and therefore would have been able to life the weights.

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