My hypothesis is that a mirror will reflect solar energy the best becauseIt is made with glass and a silver like material,but the glass has a coating of silver and aluminum.

question: What is a volt? How does a solar pannel work? 

answer: It is the potential of an eletric circut. The solar cells knock the electron of the atom where it moves towards the electron hole.When the electron falls in the electron hole it can be used.

My independant variable is the material.

My dependant variable is the potential energy in volts.

My control variable is the solar pannel,the place and the time.

Step 1.Get a mirror, tin foil, metal dog bowl, clay, white cardboard, black cardboard and rubber.mirror, tin foil, metal dog bowl, clay, white cardboard, black cardboard and rubber.

Step 2.Get a solar pannel with a form to tell you how much volts or energy you get.

Step 3.Find an optimal time and angle to put your materials and solar pannel at.

Step 4.Observe the volts\energy it gets.

Step 5.Repeat for each material.

Sunlight did the best at 6.72 volts but, a mirror and tin foil didn't lose by much getting 6.53V (mirror) and 6.04V (tin foil).

Clay surprised me by getting more then the metal dog bowl. The clay got 5.34V,5.54V and 5.21V meanwhile, the metal dog bowl got 5.45V,5.72V and 4.61V.

In conclusion the sun gave the most energy but, if you want to get the most energy by reflecting off of something you should use a mirror because it reflected the most energy.

You can use a reflective surface to redirect energy to a solar pannel,resulting in getting more volts. This would be useful for people from north america because they are starting to use more electricity.

I think we should have just used a sheet of metal instead of a metal dog bowl.

Also the clay may have had paint inside of it.

Mrsolar

Northwestuniversity

Kathy(My mom): she helped me find the topic and she funded me with the necessary matierials.

Sra Rivas:she answered all my questions.

Sra fenske:she checked up on my project several times reminding me to do it.