Video: How Does a Solar-Powered Calculator Work at Night?

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A solar-powered calculator can work at night because it uses a little battery to store all of the energy that was absorbed by its solar panels. Discover how a solar-powered calculator uses a battery for backup energy with help from a science teacher and field biologist in this free video on solar-powered calculators.

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Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Brian with ericksontutoring.blogspot.com. Today we're going to discuss how solar powered calculators work at night. So there are two main components to a solar powered calculator, that allow it to work at night. First of all, you have the solar panel which collects solar rays. Then inside of your calculator, you also have a little battery, kind of like a watch battery. So what happens is, during the day when your solar powered calculator is exposed to the sunlight. It captures all the sun rays a lot like a chlorophyll pigment will capture sunlight and transfer it, into forms of usable energy. Solar panels also collect sunlight, the electrons get excited, get passed down and get collected in the form of usable energy. Then your solar powered calculator, if it works at night, it has a little battery that stores all of this energy. So when you suddenly turn it on and there's no sunlight, there's nothing to draw energy from. You have this battery that has a backup of energy. Luckily calculators definitely don't require very much energy and they dry at a very low voltage, about 3 volts. So a little bit of energy goes a long way for your solar powered calculator. This is a brief discussion of how a solar powered calculator can work at night.

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How Does a Solar-Powered Calculator Work at Night?

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