DIY Potato Clock Kit
What?! No Batteries?! That's right! Run a clock off of 2 potatoes!! Finally, a chance to play with your food! -- Learn about electricity and chemical reactions in an innovative way. This unit is designed to demonstrate the principle of an electrochemical cell. -- The Two Potato Clock allows you to generate enough electricity to run a digital clock? Using potatoes! Just push the zinc and copper electrodes into the potatoes causing an oxidation/reduction reaction that is converted to low voltage. -- You can also try other fruits, vegetables and beverages to see what works like: -- Apples -- Avocadoes -- Bananas -- Cucumbers -- Lemons -- Limes -- Oranges -- Salt Water -- Soda -- Tomatoes -- the possibilities are endless!
HOW IT WORKS
1.The metal strps and potato make a simple battery that creates electricity to operate to operate the clock. Each potato works as a device called a electrochemical cell. It converts the chemical energy stored in the metal strips intoelectrucal energy.Two potatoes are needed to make electricity strong enough to run the clock.
2.A cell works because of the chemical properties of the metals inside (in this case the copper and zinc).The different properties cause tiny particles charged with electricity (called ions) to move between the the two strips of metal. This flow is an electric current. The potato contains the particles that allow the current to flow,but it stops the metals touching.Elactric current also flows along the wires between the zinc and copper strips and the clock. This current makes the clock work.
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS
Put some soft drink into the pots provided.Insert the copper and zice plates into the pots, as shown in the diagram,taking care that the metal pates do not touch each other.The clock should now start to work. You may experiment with different liquids like salt water,fruit juices;or fruit like lemon, orange,tomato etc.The fun is unlimited.
Contents:
digital clock with wires+connecting wire+transparent taps+pots+copper &zinc strips+instruction manual
