Flywheel Basics

Date: 10.20.18

Location: Logan HS

Time: 9:00-11:00 AM

We may want to look into this. Flywheel generators or alternators. What we

are trying to do is capture the vertical motion when the heel flexes on a

prosthesis and convert it into electricity.

Kinetic energy can be described as "energy of motion," in this case the

motion of a spinning mass, called a rotor.  The rotor spins in a nearly

frictionless enclosure.  If we can use the flexing of the prosthesis to

power a small flywheel, the inertia allows the rotor to continue spinning

and the resulting kinetic energy is converted to electricity.

Video on how a flywheel generator works (we could make one but much smaller

than the one in this video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8baGs5bbY0

I know this looks old (1970's) but they sold toy cars called SST Racers that

had a flywheel in them. You pull the strip and the car would be powered by

the flywheel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NxQf-aeDWk

This is a video of a flywheel generator using a recording head out of an old

VHS player. Don't worry about the scale right now. We can make it smaller by

miniaturizing the components. Some of our old Mini DV cameras may have a

recording head in them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaAYt8NJsvE