Energy Creation via Seesaw Up and Down

We are striving to find sources of renewable energy, either by improving current designs or by harnessing wasted energy. As today's world becomes increasingly aware of the advantages of reusable energy, it is becoming very beneficial to look for sources of wasted energy in everyday life. When people play in parks, much of the energy that they apply to the equipment in the park go to waste. The energy output by a person during their play often works to create a torque on some piece of equipment, which then translates into rotational kinetic energy, which is then transferred to heat energy through frictional forces. By waste, we mean that this rotational kinetic energy is not harnessed into a form of energy that could be used later, rather being converted to thermal energy which is lost to the surrounding space. This potential source of unused energy could be used to power much-needed electrical devices, such as lighting, which can help increase safety and comfort in and around the park. In order to solve this problem, we need to design a way to convert the rotational kinetic energy applied to the park equipment into a usable form of energy. While there is a wide array of possible equipment that could be used to harness this energy, we focused on the seesaw. We think that our seesaw while moving up and down could produce a sustainable source of energy to help reduce electricity needs in parks. We hope that this prototype can play a role in the real world, or lay the foundation for the next generation of energy innovation.