How can trigonometry optomise clean energy sources?

That was the question that we had to answer in my grade 10 math class. What does that even mean? Can math actually impact clean energy? When first being assigned this driving question, I had no idea how to do trigonometry, yet alone use it to make clean energy. After learning more about trigonometry by watching a video, I understood more about  what trigonometry was and how to complete triginometry questions.

Now that I knew what trigonometry was, it was time to refer back to my class’s driving question, how can trigonometry optomise clean energy sources? My teacher told us that we would be starting a trigonometry project where we would build a model to represent a solar panel on a roof. “Ooooohhhh”, I finally understood that we can use trigonometry to find an optimal angle for a solar panel to be at to gain the most clean energy. Once I was given instructions and a rubric, I instantly started reasurching websites that gave me information on optimal solar panel angles.

I desided to draw a first draft of what my solar panel would look like, using the angles that I found earlier while researching. I desided that I wanted to show three different angles to show summer, winter, and spring/fall. I would do this by cutting three different holes in the side of my cardboard box and use a flashlight to represent the sun.

Let’s just say that this was a very rough draft. Honestly, the only thing that I kept from my first draft was the cardboard box. This draft was important though because it gave me ideas for my second draft. Instead of cutting holes in the side of the box, I planned to put a sun inside of the model to show the angles better. I also added an additional angle by showing a roof for the solar panel to be placed on.

Once I made these drawings, I decided that it would be a better idea to be more focused by only showing one angle. I ended up choosing the spring/fall angles because it showed two seasons. Now came the fun part… to build the model!

To say I had fun on this part would be a huge understatement. I went to Micheals and pretty much bought the whole store. I bought patterned paper to represent the sky, yellow clay for the sun, yellow string for the suns rays, poster paper, and cardboard boxes. I also had a dog house and fake grass at my house from a previous Micheals shopping spree. Once I had all of the supplies I needed to build my model, I started to put things together and work on my poster.

When everything was finally running smoothly, that’s when it happened. My power went out at my house… the day before the project is due. Great, I thought, now I can’t print out the writing for my poster, let alone see. After a few minutes I called my friend Izzy who lived up the street from me. Her power was still on so I went to her place to finish my project.

Now that my model and poster were put together, it was finally time to label all of the parts in my project with correct measurements and angles. After labelling my poster, I started to label the roof on my model and the solar panel sitting on it. Now I was finally done the project and understood how to answer the driving question. One of the best ways to get clean energy is to use a solar panel, and you can’t use a solar panel to its fullest potential without setting it up on the correct angle. One way you can find the measurements and angles that are the best is by using triginometry. If you know two of the measurements that the side lengths of a triangle are, you can easily find the angle that the triangle corners would have, it also works the other way around. In conclusion, I have learned a lot about solar energy and trigonometry by doing this project, and I really enjoyed doing it.