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Materials needed:
1.One large potato
2.A voltmeter to measure voltage
3.A glavanized nail. A four penny or larger size will work
4.Two inch long piece of single strand copper wire. Either 12 or 14 gauge
4.Piece of sandpaper or steel wool
Procedure:
a.Scuff the nail and copper wire with the sandpaper or steel wool until its shiny
b.Push the nail and piece of wire into the flat side of the potato about and inch
keeping them an inch or more apart. Make sure they don't touch.
c.Set the voltmeter on its lowest whole number DC voltage. Its 2 on my meter.
d.Plug the red lead of the voltmeter into the +voltage slot. Plug the black lead
into the -negative slot(also called common)
e.The nail will be the negative or cathode of the potato battery and the copper
wire will be the plus or anode of the battery
f.Turn on the voltmeter and touch the red positive lead to the copper wire and
the black negative lead to the nail
My potato battery produced 0.88 volts. The current from this battery will be too small
to light a bulb or power an appliance.
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