The Science Experiment

Monday night Momma, Daddy and I tried a science experiment. We tried making a battery that worked. We got some old pennies (before 1982), paper towel soaked in salt water, and tin foil. We cut the tin foil and the paper towel to look like coins.

We put a coin down on the table. We layered it; coin, paper towel, tin foil. This made one “cell”. We made twelve cells. We layered them all on top of each other.

We tried to make a spark. We took a plastic coated wire and took some of the plastic off the ends (Daddy called that stripping the wire). We put each of the ends, one on the bottom, and one on top of the home made battery.

I turned off the lights. Did it spark? NO!

Daddy got out the multimeter. It lets you know how much current is in the battery. Our old pennies had 2 1/2 volts! Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!

We got new pennies (after 1982). We did the same experiment. I thought the old pennies would have less volts because old pennies may have more moss on them. The new pennies had less volts! They only had one volt!

The new pennies have less copper, so the chemical reaction (Daddy called it an ion reaction between the metals) was not as strong.

Then we stacked all the pennies. I guessed it would give 1 1/2 volts, but it did 2.8 and when Daddy redid it, it was 3 volts!

Daddy tried to light the flashlight bulb (from a maglight). Would it light? NO! It had too many volts! Daddy said it has too much current and it shorts it.

I liked this experiment. Let’s do it again some day. I want to try it with different amounts of salt in the water. Or with no salt. I want to try different amount of pennies. I want to try to make a battey with a lemon. I want to see if a lemon one works better.

If you try this, please tell me what you did and let me know how it works! Thank you!