Daniel plays on his school's football and golf teams and in city league soccer. He is the treasurer of the student council and is a member of the Red Cross Youth Council. Daniel would like to become an engineer someday. "I like taking things apart and putting them back together. I enjoy figuring out how [something] works and how I could improve it or make it better," he says.
Daniel's science hero is Mr. Hadaway. "[Mr. Hadaway is] the best science teacher I have ever had!" Daniel says. "He has inspired me and taught me that science can be extremely fun and exciting."
On a drive through western Texas to visit his grandparents, Daniel observed many windmill farms and noticed that the windmills had only three blades. He wondered if more blades or blades at a different angle would create greater energy as wind velocity increases.
Daniel built a tower to mount a generator from a 1955 Chevrolet securely onto a minivan. Five fan blades were modified to use as the different rotors. A voltmeter was attached to measure the electrical output of the wind generator. Daniel's father drove the minivan to produce wind speed. Twelve trials were performed with each of the five different rotors at 10 different wind speeds. Daniel used the 7-blade rotors to determine which blade angle (15-, 30-, or 45-degree) would produce the most output. He used the 45-degree-angle rotors to determine the optimum number of blades (three, five, or seven). Daniel concluded that the 3-blade rotor produced more voltage than the 7-blade rotor and the 15-degree rotor produced more voltage than the 45-degree rotor. Also, the wind velocity did increase the voltage output. Further, he found that the angle of the blade caused a more significant change in voltage output than a change in the number of blades used.
