Class X boy makes electricity from gravity

GURGAON: A Class X student of a government school in Gurgaon may have found the solution to the electricity woes of million of Indians. 

Prashant Sharma, the son of a farmer from Karola Village, has developed what he calls a ‘gravity lamp’, which uses only gravitational force to produce electricity. 

Prashant developed the concept for a science fair in Chandigarh, and his model was selected to be displayed at the National Children’s Science Congress to be held in Mumbai in January. 

He will be one of only 21 students from across the country to showcase their model at the five-day national level science forum. The Children Science Congress is part of the 102nd edition of the Indian Science Congress which is organized by the Indian Science Congress Association of Kolkata. 

In his concept, the lamp is tied to a 5kg weight (that can be increased depending on need), through a pulley which is further attached to a dynamo (an electrical generator). As the weight slowly descends because of the gravitational pull, the pulleys start to rotate. 

As the pulley rotates, it acts on the dynamo, which in turn spins, and converts the rotational motion into electricity. The model has a height of 5ft and he said that the weight takes up to one hour to come down and the lamp glows for the entire duration. He said that time taken by the process depends on the weight as it affects the rotations per minute (RPM) of the dynamo. 

The gravity lamp model was selected at the Jawaharlal Nehru National Science, Mathematics and Environment Exhibition held in Chandigarh in November. 

Prashant said he got help for the project from his science teacher Mukat Singh Chauhan. He said his teacher asked him to focus on renewable energy, after which he thought of exploiting gravity, which is freely available everywhere. He said that he got the idea after reading books on the principles of gravitational force. 

Prashant said that he is working to improve the further improve the model to make it last longer and would like to see it become a commercially viable product.