The solar cell collects the Sun’s energy.
The area of the solar cell matters
You can test this out using a lamp in the
laboratory
So how can we investigate only part of the cell area without damaging it?
Let’s use a mask to cover some of the solar cell area
The Sun shines down at an angle, does this affect the energy the
solar buggy can store?
You can test this out using a lamp in the
laboratory
The Sun is so far away that
the angle doesn’t matter
OK, but we need to think about how to measure angles
Clouds block out light from the Sun. Will the buggy work on cloudy
days?
You can test this out using a lamp in the
laboratory
We can’t make clouds in our
school lab
OK, but we need to think about how to simulate clouds between our lamp
and solar cell
Does the energy the buggy stores
depend on the colour of the light?
You can test this out using a lamp in the
laboratory
We don’t have lamps of
different colours in our lab
OK, but we need to think about how to
change the colour of the light striking the
solar cell
Does the type of lamp used to light the buggy affect how it works?
You can test this out using
different lamps in the laboratory
Old style light bulbs get a lot
hotter than energy saving
ones
Maybe not all of the energy from the bulb
is visible light
The solar cell collects the Sun’s energy.
The brightness of the Sun matters
You can test this out using a lamp in the
laboratory
So how can we investigate how the brightness of light affects the solar cell?
The light gets dimmer as you
move away from a lamp
The solar cell collects the Sun’s energy.
How long it is in light matters
You can test this out using a lamp in the
laboratory
So how can we investigate how
the time the buggy is in light affects the solar
buggy?
We will have to make sure the
investigation is fair