Electricity students, at the Niagara Career and Technical Education Center, did a very cool electricity lesson with science teacher Seth Muck.
He designed a lab that showed seniors in Logan Spain’s and Bill Leggett’s classes how a battery works in a simple circuit and how chemical energy changes to electrical energy.
“We used nails and copper as our two metals,” explained Muck. “For our electrolyte we used a potato. The students were able to light up an LED bulb when they put three to four potatoes in a series. The students used more and got up to 20V by the end of the lab.”
It seems that certain metals experience a chemical reaction with the acids inside the potato. The chemical reaction creates electrical energy that can power a small device. It was a great way to demonstrate the concepts of voltage, current and resistance.