How do Leaf Blowers Work?
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If you’ve ever purchased a leaf blower, chances are you were amazed by just how effective it can be. Leaf blowers make life easier, especially during the fall season when torrents of leaves flood your garden. Leaf blowers can maximize your ability to clear out leaves effectively while minimizing your work time. They’re also able to minimize – or even eliminate – the aches and pains that usually occur when your work requires you to bend down, crouch, or squat constantly.
These are amazing devices that are well worth the investment – but have you ever been curious about how the leaf blower works? The creative process is actually fairly easy to understand.
What’s the Science Behind it?
Leaf blowers work by taking advantage of something called centrifugal force. What’s that, you say? We’re glad you asked. Centrifugal force (known by some as pseudo force) is the energy created when a rotating frame moves fast enough to generate force in objects nearby.
You might have seen something like this in motion if you’ve ever used a fan in place of an air conditioner on a hot summer day. If you place a fan with the back facing the inside of your house and the front facing the outside, you can use centrifugal force to circulate air out of your house. The fan will suck up the air that’s been heating up your house and push it outside, allowing new air to come in. If you have multiple fans to work with, you can use this principle to create an air current that will help cool your house down effectively.
So How Does it Work?
When a leaf blower turns its fans on, the blades rotate rapidly to create centrifugal force. This force acts on the air surrounding the device. Once the centrifugal force hits the air, it’s sucked into the fan.
Next, the force acts to push the air out of the leaf blower. Because the front of the machine is more narrow than the back, the large volume of air that’s sucked in has to push itself out forcefully to keep up with the new air that’s rapidly being sucked into the machine. This process helps to create tremendous wind speed that clears away those pesky leaves from your yard!