DAWN TO DUSK NEWS: generate electricity

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You might be surprised but potatoes can make a clock
work. No, it doesn’t mean they can fix them (not that I know of) but
rather power them. When you think about it if they can
provide energy to the human body, they might do the same for anything
that requires electricity. 
Generating potato electricity from something like potato
may sound bizarre, but it's possible. Well, there are many people who
are generating green electricity from potatoes for running small items
like a clock or a small light bulb. 
We all know that the scientists are trying hard to find
alternate energy resources that can replace the thermal and the nuclear
energies to generate electricity. This is to both save the earth from
the negative impact of pollution as well as bring down the costs that
one has to bear for the use of electricity. 
People are trying
new methods from using the wind to the solar power and some of these
are even showing great results. There is a real issue on our hands and
we need to keep trying in order to find something that can replace the
conventional energy resources. The potato electricity voltage
we know
is not better than that a normal torch cell, but the principle involved
can be of great use for the development of more efficient batteries in
the future.  
  
 
 
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Let's
look at the science behind this innovative
energy resource:</h2>
Actually, is not
hard at all to determine how to make electricity with
a potato. Potatoes are made up of the following elements: 
<ul>
<li> water</li>
<li>starch </li>
<li>sugars</li>
<li>trace minerals
(plenty of ions)<img alt="Potato that could be used to generate electricity" height="472" hspace="6" src="http://www.all-about-potatoes.com/image-files/potato-electricity.jpg" style="border: 1px solid; float: right; height: 124px; width: 168px;" vspace="4" width="640" /></li>
</ul>
Since potatoes are
mostly water and have lots of ions dissolved in them, they can be used
as batteries quite easily. Ions are particles with an electric charge
(positive or negative) associated to them. Technically speaking you
could use almost any fruit the same way. The ions can now be used to
generate electricity by using electrodes.  
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So how do we
use this logic to generate electricity from
potatoes?</h2>
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We
can try a classic potato electricity experiment to
illustrate how it works</h3>
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Essentially we want to turn the
potato into a galvanic or voltaic cell. In this type of cell a chemical
reaction takes place which results in electricity being
produced. </div>
Step 1-
First, generating electricity from potatoes means that you would need a
large potato, two wires and two metal rods (at least).  
<img alt="Step 1 - Make a potato battery" src="http://www.all-about-potatoes.com/image-files/potato-electricity1.png" style="border: 1px solid; height: 351px; width: 443px;" /> 
Following
the
typical method that is used in a physics lab to generate electricity,
we would need different metal
rods that can be used as electrodes or carriers of
electricity. One of the rods can be a galvanized zinc nail and the
other one a cooper nail, penny or anything made of pure
copper. 
Tip: The conducting
rods need to be of different metals. For instance, one rod can be zinc
and the other can be copper. 
 
 
Step 2- Insert a
zinc
nail and the copper object into the potato battery (that’s how we call
it for this experiment).  
<img alt="Step 2 - Make a potato battery" src="http://www.all-about-potatoes.com/image-files/potato-electricity2.png" style="border: 1px solid; height: 351px; width: 443px;" /> 
Make sure the zinc
and copper objects are
separated from each other. The farther they are from each other, the
higher the voltage that is going to be generated. 
 
 
 
Step 3- At this
point you
connect one end of the first wire to the zinc nail and the other end to
the negative terminal (-) of the light bulb or clock if you prefer.
Then use the second wire to connect the copper rod (or penny) to the
positive terminal (+) on the bulb or clock. At that moment the
electronic device should turn on (as long as the potato has plenty of
ions). 
<img alt="Step 3 - Make a potato battery" src="http://www.all-about-potatoes.com/image-files/potato-electricity3.png" style="border: 1px solid; height: 351px; width: 443px;" /> 
The electrons will
start moving from the zinc nail all the way through the wire into the
electronic device and from the device to the copper object. The
electricity will keep flowing until all reactants are spent. Pretty
much when all zinc atoms are oxidized to Zn ions and all copper ions
are reduced to copper atoms. 
 
 
 
Step 4- You might
want to
use a voltmeter instead of a clock or light bulb in the beginning to
make sure there is enough voltage (potential difference) being produced
by the potato to turn on the device.  
<img alt="Step 4 - Make a potato battery" src="http://www.all-about-potatoes.com/image-files/potato-electricity4.png" style="border: 1px solid; height: 351px; width: 443px;" /> 
If that’s not
enough, several
potatoes connected in series as the ones shown in the video below,
might be necessary to turn on the device. 
 
source: all about potatoes.com </div>

How to Use Potato Electricity in 4 Steps

You might be surprised but potatoes can make a clock work. No, it doesn’t mean they can fix them (not that I know of) but rather power them...