Yesterday the class started making batteries with pennies. The teacher first started off with explaining what electro chemistry is.The basic idea:
- All elements have different attractions to electrons (Electro negativities)
- When an atom that can lose electrons more easily than an atom of a different element come into contact with one another, e-'s will transfer
What we started off was getting 9 pennies that have been made after 1982, because that was when the company started making pennies with zinc. On the left you will see a picture of three pennies. From left to right it shows a process on how the pennies looked before and after. We had to scratch off one side of the pennies to have the zinc uncovered with sand paper.
After that we had to cut out pieces of cardboard around the same size of the pennies. Then soak them into vinegar. We took out the pieces of cardboard and place them in a pattern. Copper side of penny on bottom, soak cardboard, penny, cardboard, etc. The zinc side always has to be on top. Then placed aluminum foil underneath the pennies.
We then got a LED for testing to show if the battery work, and it did. The LED easily lit up. To make the lighting last we taped the whole battery with the LED together with electrical tape.
What I learned and took back from this experiment is that I learned how to make electricity in the wild if I ever got lost with these materials. The battery can last up to a week.
Looking back to our experiment it first didn't work out as my group planned out. We made a few mistakes, like not trimming the cardboard correctly. Just small little things like that. But I am glad that my group and I fixed the problems right away. No one was having trouble understanding the experiment overall. My take away was that just because something like a penny seems useless, it doesn't mean it is. It might have a whole other meaning behind it.
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