When the water makes push-ups
Have you seen a movie where a big ship is sailing at high sea? Or maybe you have been on board a ferry or a sail boat when there are high waves? Then you know that the waves have great strength. The waves can lift a heavy ship many metres up and down without any problems.
It is the waves’ ability to lift a weight, that we make use of in our wave power plant. The waves that you make in the one end will run through the tank to the wave power plants’ floaters. The floaters are placed on an arm each and when the waves make the floaters lift and sink, the arms rock up and down. The arms are connected to a common shaft which turns around when the arms rock.
At the end of the shaft there is a generator installed. This generator makes electric current, when the shaft turns around. When the generator makes a lot of electric current, it will make a great resistance towards the turning movement of the shaft. When this happens, there need to be big waves to lift the floaters against the generator's resistance. If there are only small waves in the wave tank, then the power plant will only make a small amount of electric current.
Try to make waves in the wave tank and watch how the power plant works. The bigger waves you make, the more electric current the power plant will make, but you will probably also become tired much faster. Does it make a difference if you make faster or slower waves?