Potato Battery
Group 2
Science Investigatory Project
I Title: Potato Battery
II Objective: We only need a potato, a couple nails and a piece of wire to make a potato battery. It's a fun science project that helps show the way things work in a battery by using everyday items we see around the house. The goal is to learn more about electricity, and possibly a few new science terms along the way.
III Materials: * Two Potatoes * Two short pieces of heavy copper wire * Two common galvanized nails * Three alligator clip/wire units (alligator clips connected to each other with wire) * One simple low-voltage bulb with bulb socket
IV Procedure: 1. Remove the battery from the battery compartment of the clock. 2. Make a note of which way around the positive (+) and a negative (-) points of the battery went. 3. Number the potatoes as one and two. 4. Insert one nail in each potato. 5. Insert one short piece of the copper wire into each potato as far away from the nail as possible. 6. Use one alligator clip to connect the copper wire in potato number one to the positive (+) terminal in the bulb socket. 7. Use one alligator clip to connect the nail in potato number two to the negative (-) terminal in the bulb socket. 8. Use the third alligator clip to connect the nail in potato one to the copper wire in potato two and see the bulb light up.
V Background:
Electric current is the movement of electrons from one atom to another in a conductor. Inserting the two common metal electrodes into the potato causes a chemical reaction to occur resulting in current. The potato does not participate directly in the reaction. It is there rather as an electrolyte to facilitate the transport of the zinc and copper ions in the solution, while keeping the copper and zinc electrodes apart. The potato contains phosphoric acid (H3PO4), which facilitates the electro-chemical reaction of zinc with copper.
Zinc is an active metal, which reacts readily
Science Investigatory Project
I Title: Potato Battery
II Objective: We only need a potato, a couple nails and a piece of wire to make a potato battery. It's a fun science project that helps show the way things work in a battery by using everyday items we see around the house. The goal is to learn more about electricity, and possibly a few new science terms along the way.
III Materials: * Two Potatoes * Two short pieces of heavy copper wire * Two common galvanized nails * Three alligator clip/wire units (alligator clips connected to each other with wire) * One simple low-voltage bulb with bulb socket
IV Procedure: 1. Remove the battery from the battery compartment of the clock. 2. Make a note of which way around the positive (+) and a negative (-) points of the battery went. 3. Number the potatoes as one and two. 4. Insert one nail in each potato. 5. Insert one short piece of the copper wire into each potato as far away from the nail as possible. 6. Use one alligator clip to connect the copper wire in potato number one to the positive (+) terminal in the bulb socket. 7. Use one alligator clip to connect the nail in potato number two to the negative (-) terminal in the bulb socket. 8. Use the third alligator clip to connect the nail in potato one to the copper wire in potato two and see the bulb light up.
V Background:
Electric current is the movement of electrons from one atom to another in a conductor. Inserting the two common metal electrodes into the potato causes a chemical reaction to occur resulting in current. The potato does not participate directly in the reaction. It is there rather as an electrolyte to facilitate the transport of the zinc and copper ions in the solution, while keeping the copper and zinc electrodes apart. The potato contains phosphoric acid (H3PO4), which facilitates the electro-chemical reaction of zinc with copper.
Zinc is an active metal, which reacts readily