To understand how wind turbines function, think of how a basic fan works.
Current (typically electricity) flows into a motor
The electrical power from the current makes the motor spin
The spinning motion of the motor is applied to an axle
The axle is connected to the fan blades
The fan blades rotate from the energy produced by the motor and axle
The blades create an air flow which is pointed away from the device
Simple enough, right?
Wind turbines work generally like a fan - but in reverse. Reverse the process and you have created a wind powered electricity generator.
Wind blows over the fan blades
The blades are connected to a horizontal axle
The rotating axle is connected to an electric motor
As the axle rotates, magnets turn around coiled wires
The energy produced flows through the wires
The current is harnessed in a battery bank or directly applied to a device
If you’d like to see first hand how a wind-turbine produces energy, you can try a simple wind turbine experiment kit where you can assemble a basic energy producing wind turbine and experiment with alternative energy sources.
Are you color challenged? Don’t know what color goes best with another?
Luckily, there are many online tools to help you muddle your way through whether you are designing a web site or trying to find the perfect paint color for your home. Many will provide color suggestions based on the age-old color wheel but there are many creative tools that can even provide a color palette from an image.
Here are some of the best ones:
Color Hunter is a place to find and make color palettes created from images. To find color palettes on Color Hunter, enter a search term or search by tag or hex color code or image URL. If you have an image, you can upload it and get a color palette based on the colors in the image.
www.colorhunter.com
Kuler, from Adobe is a web-hosted application that generates color themes. With Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes. Kuler panels are built into Adobe Illustrator® CS4, Photoshop® CS4, InDesign® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, and Flash® CS4 Professional software.
www.kuler.adobe.com
If you are looking for Color Combination ideas, check out the combo library. The library contains hundreds of color swatches, along with their color hex values. You can also use the website color grabbing tool or the search tool to get a quick start.
www.colorcombos.com
Toucan, the tool from aviary.com, allows you to pick and analyze colors. Choose up to 20 colors per palette using color association rules or an uploaded image. Toucan knows all about color theory, and you can even see a color deficiency preview.
www.aviary.com
Andy Bauer is a tech writer for West Florida Components. You can view more of his articles on the blog at http://www.westfloridacomponents.com.
