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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.

2 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Can we stop praising bad science? by AdrianKemp · · Score: 0, Troll

    Look, I get that the kid is 13. The very fact that he attempted something like this is awesome and he probably could have a bright future as a scientist.

    But his experiment, and his conclusions are complete shit. Rotating the flat panel will enable it to collect many times what the tree can (which rotating does nothing for). He's either got more panels on the tree, or 2 sets of 10 flat panels facing opposite each other (which is just fucking stupid).

    Bottom line, the kids science was utter bullshit. I salute the fact that he tried and I think he should get recognition *from his parents* and encouraged to do proper science in the future.

    Rewarding shit science breeds shit science; award someone for it and they'll never strive to be better.

  2. Re:Damn straight! by Moryath · · Score: 0, Troll

    Someone else also pointed out something below that I missed because the image didn't load on my first read-through:

    18 cells on the tree. Only 10 on his supposed "control" set.

    SCIENCE FAIL.