Creepy video shows you how to make batteries out of lemons
Forget concepts! An instructional (albeit a bit creepy) video from Hila Science Camp shows you how to make live, working batteries out of ordinary pieces of lemon. The process is fairly simple: all you’ll need are a few inches of wiring, a nail that’s coated with Zinc, a copper penny, and of course, the lemon itself. Where would we be without Science?
According to the voiceover, a lemon is able to produce power because of the citric acid that’s contained inside it. It works just like a normal battery, since all you really need to do is to float two metals in an acid to produce energy. The metals in this case, will be the zinc-galvanized nail and the copper penny. The copper penny represents the positive end, while the nail becomes the opposite, negative end of the battery.
Throughout the video, the power output is tested to see how much it would take to power a single LED light bulb, and even a pocket calculator. Apparently, one lemon is only able to produce more or less one volt of electricity, which wasn’t even enough to power the lone LED. Clearly, it won’t be replacing our Lithium ion batteries any time soon, but given the right tweaks, this just might prove useful.
Keep reading to check out the video…
Via [Science Base]
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Thanks for the link! I have to admit I thought it was a bit creepy too...but at least it’s scientifically precise, unlike the spoof video with the sweet potatoes used to power an mp3 player
db
on March 13, 2008 at 04:57 AM - LINKCreepy Video? You got to be kiding me . My brother and I were doing this 30 years ago. I guess they do not teach things like this in school anymore. Most of you kids are too much into ipods, videos, music, psp’s, fashion, my space etc to learn anything of some kind of value , Our future is in jeopardy with the new generations . I am sure you will have some kind of smart a- - answer for this!
on March 13, 2008 at 01:15 PM - LINKYeah, we know it’s old, I did it at school back in the early 80s...it’s the presentation style that’s slightly creepy, the voice, the mannerisms...great stuff though and not everyone is even aware of this kind of science. Many of those that are kind of think you can power a laptop or something with a half dozen lemon slices
db
on March 13, 2008 at 01:37 PM - LINK@George: I mean no offense in saying it was a creepy video and was only trying to describe how the voice over sounded like (at least to me). In fact, I’m amazed at the method shown on the video, but I guess the originators of that process couldn’t find a way to apply it for the benefit of many. It’s still useful trivia, though.
on March 14, 2008 at 07:00 AM - LINK