Experience with potatoes and a light bulb. How to make a knife from plate steel. What metals are best suited

Let's say you ended up on a desert island or stuck in the country without electricity and the phone's battery is dead. To make a life-saving call that may save someone's life will help the following tips for generating electricity.

You never know when you might need electricity.

How to get electricity:

Method 1. Wood electricity.

For almost any simple way to get electricity for free without connecting to an existing electrical network , will definitely need galvanic cells, namely two metals that in pair form an anode and a cathode of opposite polarity respectively.

Now it remains to stick one of them into the nearest tree, for example, an aluminum rod or an iron nail so that it completely enters the tree trunk itself through the bark, and stick the other element, for example a copper tube, into the soil nearby so that it enters the ground by 15- 20 cm. Do not be surprised if between copper tube and the aluminum rod will generate a voltage of approximately 1 volt. The more rods you insert into a tree, the better quality electricity produced in this way (current). Just do not get carried away, remember that the tree is as alive as you are. You should use this method only as a last resort! Do not forget to then pull the pins out of the wood and cover with resin.

How to get electricity:Method 2

Fruit electricity?

Oranges, lemons, potatoes and other fruits are all an ideal electrolyte for generating electricity., especially if extreme situation found you near the equator. , bringing the voltage of your electricity up to as much as 2 volts!

How to get electricity:Method 3. Salt water electricity?

If you have there is copper wire and foil, the cost of obtaining electricity in this case will be equal to zero. We fill several glasses with salt water and connect them with copper wire, from glass to glass. At one end of each wire connecting the glasses must be wound aluminium foil.

How to get electricity:Method 4. Potato electricity?

You don't have a cottage electricity but there is a bag potatoes. From potato tubers you can get electricity for free, all we need is salt, toothpaste, wires and potato.

Cut it in half with a knife, pass the wires through one half, while making a spoon-shaped indentation in the center of the other, then fill it with toothpaste mixed with salt.

Connect the halves potatoes(for example, toothpicks), and the wires must be in contact with toothpaste, and it is better to clean them themselves. All! Now you can use your electricity generator to torture fires from an electric spark and light improvised light bulbs with charred bamboo fibers instead of incandescent filaments.

Then on the same fire you can cook the remaining potatoes)

What metals are best suited?

Here is a short table of the voltage series. The farther the metals are from each other, the greater the voltage, under all other identical conditions, you will receive:

How to get electricity:Method 5. Electricity from the air?

Definitely build a windmill, which by the way is not so difficult. All you need is helical blades rotated by the force of the wind, and electricity generator for conversion mechanical energy into electricity.

Also you can get free electricity from any motor!

*How to make a battery?

Lead and sulfuric acid have proven themselves for decades as a universal generator of electricity with excellent power quality, used everywhere, for example in car batteries.

To do this, we need both components, which we need to combine in ceramic dishes (found in extreme conditions clay and burn it should not be difficult for you).

June 7th, 2018

Once on a desert island, the modern Robinson could indulge in the pleasure of using a player, smartphone or flashlight, provided that he knew how to extract electricity from coconuts and bananas.

Surely, many of the physics course remember or heard that from an ordinary potato, and not only from it, you can get some electricity.
What is needed for this, and is it possible in this way to light a low-power flashlight, an LED clock powered by 1-2 Volt round batteries, or to make a radio receiver work?

And yes and no, let's take a closer look.

To understand that the voltage from a potato is not a fiction, but a very real thing, just stick sharp probes from a multimeter into a single potato and you will immediately see a few millivolts on the screen.

If you complicate the design a little, for example, insert a copper electrode or a bronze coin into the tuber on one side, and something aluminum or galvanized on the other side, then the voltage level will increase significantly.

Potato juice contains dissolved salts and acids, which are essentially a natural electrolyte.

By the way, with equal success, you can use lemons, oranges, apples for this. Thus, all these products can power not only people, but also electrical appliances.

Inside such fruits and vegetables, due to oxidation, electrons will leak from the immersed anode (galvanized contact). And they will be attracted to another contact - copper. At the same time, do not confuse, electricity here is not generated directly from potatoes. It is well produced precisely due to the chemical processes between the three elements:




  • acid

And it is the zinc contact here that serves as a consumable. All electrons flow away from it. At certain conditions even earthen soil can provide electricity. The main condition is its acidity.

earth battery

Increased soil acidity is a problem for agronomists, but a joy for electrical engineers. The content of hydrogen and aluminum ions in the earth allows you to literally stick two sticks (as usual, zinc and copper) into the pot and get electricity. Our result is 0.2 V. To improve the result, the soil should be watered.

It is important to understand that electricity is not generated from a lemon or a potato. This is not at all the energy of chemical bonds in organic molecules, which is absorbed by our body as a result of food intake. Electricity comes from chemical reactions with the participation of zinc, copper and acid, and in our battery it is the nail that serves as a consumable.

Assembling a potato battery

So, here is what is needed to assemble a more or less capacitive battery:

Potatoes, a few pieces, since one sense will not be enough.

Copper, preferably single-core wires, the larger the cross section, the better.

Galvanized and copper nails or screws (you can use just wire).

Nails will play the main role in generating electricity for a flashlight, galvanized ones are a negative contact (anode), copper-plated ones are a plus (cathode).

If applied instead of galvanized simple nails, then you will lose in tension up to 40-50%. But as an option, it will still work.

The same applies to the use of aluminum wire instead of nails. At the same time, increasing the distance between the electrodes in one potato does not play a special role.

Take copper wires(mono core) with a cross section of 1.5-2.5mm2, length 10-15cm. Strip them of insulation and wind them to a carnation.

It is best to solder, of course, then the voltage loss will be much less.

One copper nail on one side of the wire, and galvanized on the other.

Next, lay out the potatoes and sequentially stick nails into them. At the same time, different nails are stuck into each tuber, from different couples wires. That is, you should have one zinc contact and one copper contact inserted into each potato.

Different tubers are connected to each other, only through nails from various materials— copper+zinc — copper+zinc, etc.

Voltage measurements

Let's say you have three potatoes, and you connected them together in the manner described above. Use a multimeter to find out what the voltage is.

Switch it to the DC voltage measurement mode and connect the measuring probes to the conductors of the extreme potatoes, i.e. to the initial positive contact (copper) and the final negative (zinc).

Even on three medium-sized potatoes, you can get almost 1.5 volts.

If, however, to the maximum reduce all transient resistances, and for this:


  • as a copper electrode, use not a nail, but the very wire that the circuit is assembled with

  • apply soldering in contacts

then only 4 potatoes are capable of delivering up to 12 volts!

If your cheap flashlight is powered by three AA batteries, then you will need about 5 volts to successfully glow it. That is, when using conventional wires, you need at least three times more potatoes.

To do this, by the way, it is not necessary to look for additional tubers, it is enough to cut the existing ones into several parts with a knife. Then do the same procedure with wires and studs.

Insert one galvanized and one copper carnation into each cut tuber. As a result, it is quite possible to obtain a constant voltage of more than 5.5V.

Is it theoretically possible to get 5 volts from one single potato and at the same time ensure that the entire assembly is no larger than AA battery? It is possible and very easy.

Cut off small pieces of the core from potatoes, and lay them between flat electrodes, such as coins from different metal(bronze, zinc, aluminum).

In the end, you should get something like a sandwich. Even one piece of such an assembly is capable of producing up to 0.5V!
And if you collect several of them together, then the required value up to 5V will easily be obtained at the output.

Current strength

It would seem that everything, the goal has been achieved, and it remains only to find a way to connect the wiring to the power contacts of the flashlight or LEDs.

However, having done such a procedure and assembling a not weak construction from several potatoes, you will be very disappointed with the final result.
Low-power LEDs will of course glow, after all, you still received voltage. However, the level of brightness of their glow will be catastrophically dim. Why is this happening?

Because, unfortunately, such a galvanic cell gives a negligibly low current. It will be so small that not even all multimeters are able to measure it.

Someone will think, since there is not enough current, you need to add more potatoes and everything will work out.

Of course, a significant increase in tubers will increase the working voltage.

When tens and hundreds of potatoes are connected in series, the voltage will increase, but there will be no most important thing - sufficient capacity to increase the current strength.

Yes, and all this design will not be rationally suitable.

A practical way with boiled potatoes

But still, is there an easy way to increase the power of such a battery and reduce its size? Yes there is.

For example, if for this purpose you use not raw, but boiled potatoes, then the power of such a source of electricity increases several times!

To assemble a convenient compact design, use the case from an old C (R14) or D (R20) battery.

Delete all the contents inside (naturally, except for the graphite rod).

Instead of filling, fill the entire space with boiled potatoes.

Then assemble the battery design in reverse order.

The zinc part of the old battery case plays a significant role here.

The total area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe inner walls is much larger than just sticking cloves into raw potatoes.

Hence the high power and efficiency.

One such power supply will easily deliver almost 1.5 volts, as will a small AA battery.

But the most important thing for us is not volts, but milliamps. So, such a “boiled” upgrade is capable of providing current up to 80mA.

These batteries can power a receiver or an electronic LED clock.

Moreover, the entire assembly will work not for seconds, but for several minutes (up to ten). More batteries and potatoes, more battery life.

lemon battery

Vinegar battery. An ice cube mold will help you build a multi-cell battery with vinegar as an electrolyte. Use galvanized screws and copper wire as electrodes. Filling the battery with vinegar and connecting to it led lamp, try to gradually fall asleep and stir the table salt in the cells: the brightness of the glow will grow before your eyes.

Juicy fruits, new potatoes and others food products can serve as food not only for people, but also for electrical appliances. To extract electricity from them, you will need a galvanized nail or screw (that is, almost any nail or screw) and a piece of copper wire. To fix the presence of electricity, we need a household multimeter, and more clearly demonstrate success LED lamp or even a battery powered fan.

Mash the lemon in your hands to break it down internal partitions but don't damage the peel. Insert a nail (screw) and copper wire so that the electrodes are as close to each other as possible, but do not touch. The closer the electrodes are, the less likely they are to be separated by a partition inside the fruit. In turn, the better the ion exchange between the electrodes inside the battery, the greater its power.

The essence of the experiment is to place copper and zinc electrodes in an acidic environment, whether it be a lemon or a bath of vinegar. The nail will serve as our negative electrode, or anode. copper wire assign the positive electrode, or cathode.

In an acidic environment, an oxidation reaction occurs on the anode surface, during which free electrons are released. Each zinc atom loses two electrons. Copper is a strong oxidizer and can attract electrons released by zinc. If close electrical circuit(connect a light bulb or multimeter to an impromptu battery), electrons will flow from the anode to the cathode through it, that is, electricity will appear in the circuit.

How to do electric generator from potatoes

Making a potato battery

Immediately, I want to warn my friends that this experience of do-it-yourselfers is more of a joke. But judging by the reviews, get an electric spark and set fire to a piece of cotton potato power generator really possible. Of course, I myself have not tried to do this and I can’t even imagine what this product can be useful for.

Although, if you run out of matches, but there are potatoes, as well as two wires, two toothpicks, salt, toothpaste, a knife and a teaspoon, then you can probably light a fire.

So, we clean the wires and cut the potato into two halves. We pierce one half of the potato with wires, and in the other teaspoon we make a dimple, the size of the spoon itself, respectively. Next, mix the toothpaste with salt, in what proportions it is not known, try it yourself, and fill the hole in the potato with this mixture. Now let's bend with inside the first half of the posting potato so that when both halves are connected, they fall into the dimple with the mixture. We connect the halves and fasten them with toothpicks.

Here you go, potato power generator ready and…ready to use. To get fire from this "miracle of technical thought", you need to wrap a piece of cotton wool on one end of the wire. Wait two or three minutes for the "construction" to charge, and bring both wires to each other until a spark appears. Of course, this is physics for the eighth grade, but it's still interesting.

By the way, there is an opinion that not all toothpaste can be suitable, but only the one in which there is alcohol or fluoride. Salt, mixed with such toothpaste, forms an electrolyte, which contributes to the generation of a sufficient amount of heat for a spark to appear.

However, there is another way associated with the extraction of electricity from potatoes. You need to stick two stripped wires, one copper 1.0 2.0 mm, 30 40 mm long, and the other zinc, into the potato and ... the whole bio battery is ready. Her energy should be enough to . In principle, other vegetables and fruits in the composition, which contain weak solutions of acids, will fit to create such a “device”.

From these natural energy carriers, one can easily make a similar simplest galvanic cell, the performance of which can be checked with an ordinary galvanometer.

If someone is interested in these "vegetable batteries" and decides to conduct a "scientific experiment", please unsubscribe in the comments whether you succeeded or not. Believe me, the result will be of interest not only to me.

Getting electricity from potatoes at home is very simple. In addition to the potatoes themselves, it is necessary to get two wires: copper and galvanized (you can also take silver and gold, but such wires lie - does anyone have one). The wires need to be stuck into the potatoes. At the outputs, we will receive electricity with a voltage of about 3 volts. However, do not forget that everything also depends on the size of the potato itself. The current will be polar: on the copper end - plus, and on the galvanized - minus. Naturally, several potatoes can be connected in series or in parallel and then the voltage will be higher. In principle, it is possible to achieve electricity with any voltage. But, of course, do not forget that the charge of the potato is not infinite, so after a while it will end. You can’t eat potatoes after that, as there is a risk of poisoning. ******************************************************* ********** I welcome you to my channel Roman Ursu, where you will learn how to make homemade, New Year's crafts, gifts, toys, scarecrows for Halloween, and most importantly, that all this can be done at home and with your own hands! Are you into handicrafts, crafts or do you just have nothing to do? Then you got to the channel you need here you can find a lot of homemade crafts, crafts that are made by yourself, and most importantly, they are all made from improvised means and at minimal cost! ******************************************************* ********** main channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/romanursu my second channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/romanursuvlogs Vkontakte community: http://vk.com/club59870517 group in classmates: http://www.odnoklassniki.ru/romanursu ATTENTION!!! - my channel for decent ones: for mate, shortened or modified mate, for insults and "trolling" - I WILL BAN!!! Attention be careful and do not repeat this at home, the author is not responsible for your actions, this is an entertainment video, not a training or a call to action! ******************************************************* ********** It"s very easy to get electricity from potato. Besides the potato you need to find two wires - copper and galvanized ones. You may also take silver and golden wires, but one can hardly find it. You have to stick wired into the potato. We receive the electricity of about 3 V. Remember that everything depends on the size of potato. Current would be polar: copper wire has plus and galvanized wire has minus. Obviously, you may use multiple connection of a few potatoes, and you"ll get higher strain. Actually, it's possible to get electricity with any strain rate. It's worth mentioning, that potato charge isn't endless, so it ends up in some time. You may not eat the potato afterwards as you risk to get poisoned. Welcome to my channel Roman Ursu where you will learn how to make hand made crafts, New Year crafts, presents, toys, Halloween scares. The main thing is that one can make it at home and with one's own hands. You are interested in handiwork, craft or you just have nothing to do, haven"t you? You have found the channel you really need. Here you can find lots of crafts, hand made items, and the main thing is that they all made of make-shifts and at the lowest cost!