A: A Penny Battery is a stack of pennies that produce voltage like a real battery. One side of a penny is zinc ( - ) and the other side is copper ( + ). The more pennies you use the higher the voltage you have.
Q: How do get zinc from a copper penny?
A: To get zinc, you have to scrape one side of a penny with sandpaper. File it until the penny is fully silver colored. Scrape at least 5 pennies. (Note: this only works with pennies that are from 1982 and above)
Q: What do you do next?
A: Cut small pieces of cardboard and grab a cup and fill it with salt water and some vinegar. Then, soak the pieces of carboard and let it sit there for 5 - 10 minutes.
Q: Why do you need cardboard?
A: To make a real life battery function, it needs three parts; Anode ( - ), the cathode ( + ), and the electrolyte. In a penny battery the anode is the zinc, the cathode is the copper, and the electrolyte is the damp cardboard. The greater the acidity the greater number of electrolytes. This creates a flow of electrical energy.
Q: How should you stack them?
A: The bronze color (copper) should be facing down and the side of the penny that is scratched (the zinc) should be facing up. The damp cardboard should be on top of the zinc and keep repeating this pattern until your left with no pennies. No coins should be touching eaching other and no cardboards should be touching. The individual layers need to be separate.
Q: How do you know it works?
A: With a multimeter you can test how many volts it produces. If you have enough volts, then you are able to light up an LED light. Make sure the shorter leg touches the bottom and the longer leg touches the top. The legs shouldn't touch any other layer(s).
Q: How did you make them stay together?
A: I used materials like tape and scissors.
And it should look like this.
Q: What other materials did you use?
Q: Why do you need wires?
A: Since i'll be using a switch, I will be needing the wires so it can hold the two LED lights in place.
After that, I bought a small basket and taped it.
