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13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

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Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#81

Post by jules »

toppy wrote: post #65
uvdiv wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Basically the tree of cells are arranged in different angles so that as the sun moves some of them will always be receiving optimal sunlight when their normal is parallel with that of the incident light." Except it's trivially impossible to generate more energy like this (as he claims)! If a set of solar panels is independent and non-interacting (e.g., they don't shade or heat each other), then their total power out…

This guy is 13 ;)

The problem is not with the guy, the problem is with the journalists.

Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#82

Post by ForrestN »

felipemnoa wrote: post #3

The comparison is against a flat row of cells that do not track the sun. I suspect that it will not do better compared to an array of cells that do track the sun. Basically the tree of cells are arranged in different angles so that as the sun moves some of them will always be receiving optimal sunlight when their normal is parallel with that of the incident light. Very nice insight, especially for a kid his age. I ce…

Wouldn't it be possible to track the sun with the tree model as well?

Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#84

Post by ForrestN »

It seems like trees are trying to maximize the density of leaves they can accommodate, balancing that against the decreasing usefulness of each leaf. I suspect using the tree placement you could produce much more energy per square meter of land, because you could fit so many more panels.

Imagine if a tree's leaves were arranged in a grid. The footer would be enormous. If you are making a solar farm. In the desert with sun-tracking panels, I don't know how much this improves things, because there isn't much limit on land. But in a city, on rooftops, in backyards, etc, you might be able to get a lot more total energy out of a given plot this way.

Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#85

Post by llambda »

llambda wrote: post #61
ColinWright wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In part, this is why it says in the guidelines: In Submissions ... Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they found on another site, submit the latter. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Your last link has now been submitted by someone as a separate item and is just so much better. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2902496

Colin, It seems a great deal of your comments have begun to fall into either the "this has already been posted" or "you're not following the rules" category. Do you see the problem with "contributing" material on top of material you see as less than satisfactory? You're only adding more cruft to the cruft. We get it. You don't like reposts. We get it. You don't like it when people don't follow the rules to a "T". Gue…

All I'm asking is that if he wants more quality he contribute more quality. Yes; I'm doing what I'm complaining about him doing, however I've done it exactly once, how many pages and pages of his comment history are filled with these aforementioned comments?

Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#86

Post by JoeAltmaier »

uvdiv wrote: post #55
felipemnoa wrote: post #3

The comparison is against a flat row of cells that do not track the sun. I suspect that it will not do better compared to an array of cells that do track the sun. Basically the tree of cells are arranged in different angles so that as the sun moves some of them will always be receiving optimal sunlight when their normal is parallel with that of the incident light. Very nice insight, especially for a kid his age. I ce…

"Basically the tree of cells are arranged in different angles so that as the sun moves some of them will always be receiving optimal sunlight when their normal is parallel with that of the incident light." Except it's trivially impossible to generate more energy like this (as he claims)! If a set of solar panels is independent and non-interacting (e.g., they don't shade or heat each other), then their total power out…

Cool analysis.

Doesn't it make sense that an empirical test would not reach a theoretical max? For instance you've discounted shade effects as where he went wrong. Maybe its exactly the shade issue that makes his findings significant. Every urbanite will have to deal with it, and his array may do a better job in intermittent shade.

If mass-distributed, most folks would not be optimizing anything - install-and-forget - so its a real solution to create something that works in most environments.

Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#87

Post by llambda »

tokenadult wrote: post #80
llambda wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colin, It seems a great deal of your comments have begun to fall into either the "this has already been posted" or "you're not following the rules" category. Do you see the problem with "contributing" material on top of material you see as less than satisfactory? You're only adding more cruft to the cruft. We get it. You don't like reposts. We get it. You don't like it when people don't follow the rules to a "T". Gue…

That's really a cheap shot after Colin's kind reply to your informational question from just the last month. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2831538

And I really appreciated that. It was the first time I had read a comment by him that wasn't putting down someone's submission or complaining about there being a similar article. I wish he'd spend more time contributing comments like that. By the way, thank you for your comment there Colin. I truly was glad to see you don't only make comments on dupes.

Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#88

Post by ColinWright »

llambda wrote: post #85
llambda wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colin, It seems a great deal of your comments have begun to fall into either the "this has already been posted" or "you're not following the rules" category. Do you see the problem with "contributing" material on top of material you see as less than satisfactory? You're only adding more cruft to the cruft. We get it. You don't like reposts. We get it. You don't like it when people don't follow the rules to a "T". Gue…

All I'm asking is that if he wants more quality he contribute more quality. Yes; I'm doing what I'm complaining about him doing, however I've done it exactly once, how many pages and pages of his comment history are filled with these aforementioned comments?

I already contribute items I believe to be of quality, both submissions and comments. Ceasing to comment on duplicates and breaches of the guidelines won't change that.

Re: 13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence

#90

Post by jobu »

colanderman wrote: post #77

I don't get what his results have to do with the Fibonacci sequence. Between his "control" and the design he was testing, he changed: 1. panel heights 2. panel angles 3. whether panels were stacked or not I would guess that any of those three things matter way more than the position of the "leaves" following the Fibonacci sequence. He needed to compare his design to a similar tree-shape whose "leaves" were, say, unif…

Pretty sure you're missing the point. This kid is 13, and he went and did his own research and experimentation, and followed through with a patent and a very well-written letter to the American Museum of Natural History.

My kids are younger, but I would be happy if I could give them the sort of environment/encouragement to follow their curiosity even half as well as this kid.

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