Why do windmills typically have 4 blades, yet all modern wind turbines have 3?
In: 9124
Take a pencil, a piece of paper, and a straight edge of some sort (NOT a ruler, for this experiment you can’t measure, you can only use a straight edge to get straight lines).
Put a dot in the center of the paper. Then, using the ruler, make an + on the paper with the dot at the very center of the +. Try to make it as perfect of a + as you can without measuring to make sure it’s perfect. Even without measuring you can make a pretty good + if you take your time, right?
Flip the paper over and put a dot in the center of the paper. Now try to draw three straight lines going outward from that dot, with the same amount of space between each line if you go around the dot in a circle. Again, no measuring, you just get a straight edge to make sure the lines are straight. This time it’s a lot harder, isn’t it?
This is essentially the problem that people in previous centuries had to solve. 3 blades makes for better windmills, but they have to be spaced apart evenly. If they’re not, then the windmill won’t work properly. What’s more, you’re ‘drawing’ three lines, so that’s three chances to mess up. With a 4-bladed windmill you’re actually using two extra-long blades (from one tip, across the center of the windmill, to the other tip), so there’s only 2 ‘lines’ you have to make and you know for sure the two blades on each extra-long blade are evenly spaced from each other, so you only have to worry about spacing each extra-long blade properly (which is also easier to do by hand/by sight because 40 blades means 90 degree angles and those are easier to make with non-modern tools).
Nowadays with computers measuring and making everything it’s trivial to make a 3-bladed wind turbine, but before computers everyone was 4-bladed because it was easier to make correctly.
Why do windmills typically have 4 blades, yet all modern wind turbines have 3?
In: 9124
Take a pencil, a piece of paper, and a straight edge of some sort (NOT a ruler, for this experiment you can’t measure, you can only use a straight edge to get straight lines).
Put a dot in the center of the paper. Then, using the ruler, make an + on the paper with the dot at the very center of the +. Try to make it as perfect of a + as you can without measuring to make sure it’s perfect. Even without measuring you can make a pretty good + if you take your time, right?
Flip the paper over and put a dot in the center of the paper. Now try to draw three straight lines going outward from that dot, with the same amount of space between each line if you go around the dot in a circle. Again, no measuring, you just get a straight edge to make sure the lines are straight. This time it’s a lot harder, isn’t it?
This is essentially the problem that people in previous centuries had to solve. 3 blades makes for better windmills, but they have to be spaced apart evenly. If they’re not, then the windmill won’t work properly. What’s more, you’re ‘drawing’ three lines, so that’s three chances to mess up. With a 4-bladed windmill you’re actually using two extra-long blades (from one tip, across the center of the windmill, to the other tip), so there’s only 2 ‘lines’ you have to make and you know for sure the two blades on each extra-long blade are evenly spaced from each other, so you only have to worry about spacing each extra-long blade properly (which is also easier to do by hand/by sight because 40 blades means 90 degree angles and those are easier to make with non-modern tools).
Nowadays with computers measuring and making everything it’s trivial to make a 3-bladed wind turbine, but before computers everyone was 4-bladed because it was easier to make correctly.
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