How to Make a Homemade Dry Cell Battery
If you are looking for an easy, safe science experiment for children, either to teach them how electricity works or for the elementary science fair, constructing a dry cell battery is a good project to try. Batteries produce electricity by making electrons in an electrolyte solution. In wet cell batteries, the solution is a liquid, such as acid or salt water. Dry cell batteries use an electrolyte paste. For the purpose of this experiment, we will be using a potato.
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Things You'll Need
- Potato
- Plate
- 2 pennies
- 2 galvanized nails
- 2-foot strand of copper wire
- Wire cutters
- Wire strippers
- Kitchen knife
- Low-voltage LED clock with attachments for wire
- Marker
- 4 alligator clips
Instructions
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1
Cut the wire into three 8-inch strands using the wire cutters. Then strip 2 inches of insulation off of the ends of each wire.
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2
Attach alligator clips to the end of each wire.
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3
Cut the potato in half, and place each half with the flat side down on a plate. With your marker, number your potatoes "1" and "2".
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4
Push a penny halfway into each potato.
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5
Insert the point side of the galvanized nails into each potato. Make sure that the pennies and nails do not touch.
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6
Clamp the end of one wire to each galvanized nail.
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7
Connect the other end of the wire from potato 2 to the penny from potato 1.
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8
Clamp the remaining wire onto the penny of potato 2. Then connect this wire to the positive connection of the LED clock.
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9
Clip the wire running off the galvanized nail in potato 1 to the negative connection on the LED clock.
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1
Tips & Warnings
To make a wet cell LED, you can use a lemon instead of a potato.
