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13-Year-Old Uses Fibonacci Sequence For Solar Power Breakthrough

Posted by Soulskill on from the one-one-two-three-five-eureka dept.

An anonymous reader tips news of 7th grader Aidan Dwyer, who used phyllotaxis — the way leaves are arranged on plant stems in nature — as inspiration to arrange an array of solar panels in a way that generates 20-50% more energy than a uniform, flat panel array. Aidan wrote, "I designed and built my own test model, copying the Fibonacci pattern of an oak tree. I studied my results with the compass tool and figured out the branch angles. The pattern was about 137 degrees and the Fibonacci sequence was 2/5. Then I built a model using this pattern from PVC tubing. In place of leaves, I used PV solar panels hooked up in series that produced up to 1/2 volt, so the peak output of the model was 5 volts. The entire design copied the pattern of an oak tree as closely as possible. ... The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!"His work earned him a Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History and a provisional patent on the design.

4 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Re:He just used more solar cells by fiordhraoi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Somehow I doubt that the American Museum of Natural History missed that, after reviewing him for a rather prestigious award for someone his age. There's most probably something we can't see from the picture alone, or the discrepancy was accounted for in the math.

  2. Re:Makes sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From TFS

    His work earned him a Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History and a provisional patent on the design.

    Patenting natures design, anyone else thinks that something is wrong here?

  3. Are we missing the point? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How many of you took time at the tender age of 13 to study leaf patterns on trees to figure out how best to capture sunlight and harness it for electricity? You can crap on his science all you want, but kids like this young man inspire me and give me hope that we aren't raising a bunch of video-game addicted sluggards who take everything for granted. Hooray for science and kids who want to pursue it! We want to encourage this behavior, not nit-pick him for possible flaws in research methodology.

  4. Re:Makes sense... by edumacator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You did notice the fact that he is in the seventh grade right?

    --
    An important change for education.