Potato Powered Light BUlb

1) Get a potato and cut it in half. Then make a small slit in each half simply huge enough to put a cent into.

2) Cut 2 pieces of copper wire and wrap one around among the cents a couple of times, and wrap the other one around the other cent a couple of times too.

3) Take a 3rd piece of copper wire, and wrap it around among the zinc-plated nails or screws, and after that put the nail or screw into among the potatoes.

4) Now take the wire connected to the penny in the potato that also contains the nail or screw, and cover it around the second nail or screw. Then take that second nail or screw and put it into the other potato half.

5) Now here is the fun part: Attached the 2 loose ends of copper wire to the LED light bulb, and ... Let there be light!

Normally a cent & & a galvanized nail are used for this 'battery'.

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Copper & & zinc are REQUIRED for this process, however not a cent & & a nail per se. A potato works well, but a tomato, lemon or other citrus fruit can be
substituted. The zinc and the copper are the anode and cathode terminals of your potato battery. Using ordinary hook-up electrical wire, you can use the potato to create a voltaic cell, which will power a VERY little bulb. A light producing diode (LED) will work fine. A side note here about voltage & & present. This procedure will produce less than 1.

5 volts DC (AA/AAA battery). Nevertheless, producing 1.5 volts does not necessarily produce enough present to make the light actually power as much as full usage. Voltage is just the CAPACITY to do work. (See Ohm's law: V = I x R) This sort of battery normally produces just a couple of milliamps. Even several potatoes might not generate enough amperage. The majority of surely, it will NOT power a home light, but a little flashlight light will GLOW.

Cut the potato in half. Wrap the end of a piece of wire around a galvanized nail and wrap completion of a second piece of wire around a cent. Stick the copper side into one piece of potato and the nail into the other. The zinc and copper electrodes should not touch each other. If a wire is connected between the Zinc nail and the copper cent, electrons will stream. Nevertheless, direct contact of the 2 electrodes will only produce heat.

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 with acid to liberate electrons. The acid's active ingredient is positively charged hydrogen, so a transfer of electrons takes place between the zinc and the acid. The zinc (Zn0) is oxidized (Zn++ ) and the acid (H+) is reduced to hydrogen gas (H2), which you can see bubbling out around the electrodes. The reaction at the penny electrode depletes the electrons from the copper and attaches them to the hydrogen ions in the phosphoric acid.

Oxidation: Zn --> Zn++ + 2e-
(Zinc looses 2 electrons)

Reduction: 2H+ + 2e- -->H2
(Hydrogen ions gain electrons)

Net Reaction: Zn + 2H+ --> Zn++ + H2
(Hydrogen gas and 'power')