The Power of Money

April 30, 2005

A few weeks ago I spent a day or two making simple Galvanic cells with pennies, nickles, dimes, and a generous amount of citrus fruit. The principle behind this is clearly explained in the nicely produced, albeit soporific, video below:

Note that a galvanized nail is used in the video— this does produce a stronger current than using a dime or nickel, but the general effect is the same. One other thing to bear in mind is that a single lemon (which serves as the electrolyte) and two different metals constitutes a cell, not a battery. A battery, as far as scientists are concerned, consists of two or more cells working together is a sequence.