- #1
baywax
Gold Member
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What do you think?
http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2011/images/aidan_large_08.jpg
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good...ibonacci-sequence-solar-energy-182220725.html
A teenager is about to change the way we collect sunlight.
Long Island resident Aidan Dwyer is just 13 years old and is already a patented inventor of solar panel arrangements.
On a winter hiking trip, the teen noticed a pattern in the tangled mess of branches above him. Aidan took photos of the branches that "seemed to have a spiral pattern that reached up to the sky." His curiosity quickly led him to investigate "whether there is a secret formula in tree design and whether the purpose of the spiral pattern is to collect sunlight better."
Aidan applied the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical principal found in nature, to a "tree-like stand affixed with small solar panels in the Fibonacci pattern," TreeHugger reports.
See a photo of Aidan's model here.
When Aidan compared his model's ability to collect sunlight with traditional flat-panels, the one based on tree-growth patterns won, producing 20 per cent more energy than the flat panel arrays. During winter, when sunlight is at its lowest, the tree design outperformed the flat panels by 50 per cent.
http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2011/images/aidan_large_08.jpg
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good...ibonacci-sequence-solar-energy-182220725.html