Can Anyone Help With a School Project?

[Chocolatewayne]

I'm doing a project for Health class in high school and the task is to create a useful item that could potentially be sold in a realistic scenario. It has to be made out of recycled materials. My idea is a fan, blades made of water bottles, the bottles attached to Styrofoam, the base of the fan being a cardboard box or something similar. The problem I have run into is what kind of motor to use to spin the blades and how to wire the motor. I am also curious as to whether or not a motor can be plugged directly into an electrical outlet and run just like that. I'd be very grateful for any help you can offer. Thanks.

*EDIT* I've taken the motor out of a small old fan and glued it to a piece of styrofoam with three bottles attached. I'm waiting for the glue to dry, but I'm not sure if the motor will be strong enough to rotate the contraption at a high enough speed.

 

[(*steve*)]

I'm pretty sure that at high school, they're going to strongly discourage you doing your own mains wiring.

You need to connect the fan motor the same way that it was connected in the original fan. If you've not written that down or taken pictures or something, it's going to be harder.

Frankly I think the safety aspects of having mains wiring in a cardboard and polystyrene box outweigh all other factors.

 

[CiaranM]

oh, the irony of using mains wiring in a cardboard box for a health & safety project. If you can find a project box which, I suppose, is made of recycled plastic, then use that. Cardboard will be easily damaged and may let liquid through, which definitely isn't good for a circuit.
I'm sure you could use a DC motor and one or two PP3s (9V 'coppertop' batteries).
What are you going to use the fan for?