A Potato Clock For Smart Kids Who Know

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We rely on digital clocks in all kinds of ways, and when their batteries go flat there’s a problem. They tell us when the fries are cooked, and who won the hurdle race. When we are climbing  mountains and there’s an accident, they help us count a person’s pulse rate and know what to do. Normally, we use Dad’s smartphone. When his lithium battery goes down, only the kids know how to make a potato clock.

The Low Down on a Potato Clock

You are a smart kid and follow our blog. So you already guessed a potato clock uses potato juice just like a lemon battery. In other words, the liquid inside is the electrolyte. You just need to add the electrodes and connect things up with alligator connector leads.

The electrodes are lengths of heavy copper wire, and galvanized nails coated with zinc. Interrogate the clerk in the hardware store. Accept no substitutes. We are doing science. Check this video out.

Okay Great So How Long Does the Potato Battery Last

Potato power dies when the potato goes rotten. The smell is really gross. You may like to bury the potato in the garden where the dog can’t find it because it smells like you know what. The battery will continue putting out electricity until then, depending on the thickness of zinc coating on the galvanized nails.

You could keep the potato battery going longer if you used a solid piece of zinc instead. Then you could extend the potato’s life by keeping the potato clock in the cooler bag. Explain to Mom that you are expanding the frontiers of science. Run a mile if you forget, and there’s strange smell coming from the cooler bag …

Related

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How Electrons Travel In and Out of Electrodes

Preview Image:  Russet Potatoes

Video Link: https://youtu.be/lpM74JGCpoA

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About Author

I tripped over a shrinking bank balance and fell into the writing gig unintentionally. This was after I escaped the corporate world and searched in vain for ways to become rich on the internet by doing nothing. Despite the fact that writing is no recipe for wealth, I rather enjoy it. I will not deny I am obsessed with it when I have the time. I live in Margate on the Kwazulu-Natal south coast of South Africa. I work from home where I ponder on the future of the planet, and what lies beyond in the great hereafter. Sometimes I step out of my computer into the silent riverine forests, and empty golden beaches for which the area is renowned. Richard

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