Sunday, August 28, 2005

Battery


Yesterday "L" and I spent the day trying to make a battery out of lemons and limes. We failed. We were able to get enough voltage out the fruits, but apparently not enough current. Any thoughts on what went wrong?

We wired them in series and managed at one point to get the voltmeter to read over 3. At that point we tried to hook it up to an LED which worked with 3 volts worth of Duracell, and got nothing.

We tried wiring them in parallel too but that got us nowhere either.

I know, it sounds like a seventh-grade science experiment, but we plan on working our way up to bigger and better things. We were hoping that starting with the basics - power sources - we would gain insight in to the higher up things.

This is very frustrating when this doesn't work.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

HA! You guys are awesome. If you squeeze the fruits a little to juice up the insides, the current runs more freely-you'll get more. Also, if you try touching the wire to your tongue you should feel a tingle so you know you're getting something. Try powering a little digital watch, I think it's easier. I keep meaning to try that with O.

karl said...

Yeah, we started mushing but I think we didn't mush enough, and we thought that might be the problem. We still might. I emailed "L" a few hours ago suggesting that. The watch thing is also a good idea. I need to get a watch.

You think it will power my cell phone? It would be funny to have a backpack full of lemons hooked up to my phone. Maybe they can make bnluetooth lemons.

bec said...

this sounds like that night when you were doing those kabbalistic incantations after drawing circles around cockroaches. except that this is completely different.

karl said...

The only difference is that time it worked ;)

bec said...

hey, i'd rather the roach be rid experiment work than the cell lemon/lime cell phone work. then again, if the cell works, you can always call the exterminator.

Anonymous said...

Kabbalah and cockroaches? Sounds just like Karl. Always mystical, new-agey, head in the clouds, you know. Oh.......

Karl you'll need more than a backpack full of lemons to power your cell. What about pushing a wheelbarrow full of lemons? Or you know those motorized scooters that old people drive? What about hooking one of those up and pulling a trailer full of lemons? That way you could power your cellphone and your laptop all while driving around.

bec said...

wouldn't this all depend on how often he uses his cell, shosh? i mean, if he uses it once a week for a minute or two, he could have it on "off" and it wouldn't matter. but, if a lot of lemon power is needed, might i suggest sunlight dish liquid? it smells very lemony, and sudses up quite nicely.
oh, or you could always use the pope mobile. or the oprah bus. or cindy sheehan's ego. yes, i really hate cindy sheehan.

karl said...

You think I can make rechargable lemons, so that when the charge wears out on the lemons, I can just plug them in overnight or something?

bec said...

what if you use the lemons while they are still attached to the lemon tree? if they're still growing, wouldn't that make them somewhat rechargeable?