Why do windmills have vertical blades and not horizontal spokes with vertical discs at the end?
April 28th, 2010 | 
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Just wondering why do windmills have vertical blades and not horizontal spokes with discs or cups attached at the end of each spoke vertically! I feel the latter way would be better and more effective to rotate the gears and generate more electricity.
They take up much more "land". They have much larger footprints. The height of an object does not affect this footprint. Large-scale horizontal turbines would take up huge amounts of space, and it would be difficult to stack them horizontally.
Posted in VERTICAL WINDMILL
You’re talking about vertical-axis wind turbines, and they do exist. See the link in "source" below.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_axis_wind_turbine
You mean: why do the blades go to the axle rather than just be small blades at the end of a spoke?
That would be because the part of the blade that is near the centre of the propeller contributes to the rotational force. Not as much as the part at the outer edge, but it does still contribute and every little bit helps to improve efficiency
References :
They take up much more "land". They have much larger footprints. The height of an object does not affect this footprint. Large-scale horizontal turbines would take up huge amounts of space, and it would be difficult to stack them horizontally.
References :