How To Make A Potato Light
If chemistry classes were on your mind at school, this little experiment is just for you. This is how you make the potato light.
Making light from potatoes is easy. You will first need a couple of potatoes. When you add some simple materials from the hardware store to it, this starchy food gets the battery for new ecological homes.
Haim Rabinowitch, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been working for years to build a device capable of isolating the energy stored in potatoes. This study arose from the idea of helping those people who do not have access to an electricity grid.
According to Rabinowich, the root in question simply needs to be connected to wires, screws and, of course, an LED lamp in order to build artificial light in different spaces of the home.
The study found that a simple potato light can illuminate a room for about 40 days.
This is how you make the potato light
What do you need?
- 2 small potatoes (cooked for 8 minutes)
- 3 copper wires
- 2 copper rods or wires
- 2 zinc bars or nails
- 1 small lamp, 1.5 V
Recipe
- Wrap one copper wire around each copper wire or rod.
- Dip them in potatoes, one for each.
- Wrap the remaining third copper wire around the zinc rod and place it inside one of the potatoes.
- Grasp the end of the copper wire in this potato and wrap it around another zinc rod.
- Put another zinc bar on another potato.
- Connect the two free cable ends to the lamp (be careful not to touch the copper).
- Ready? It lights up the room!
How does it work?
The potato itself does not produce electricity, but it does contain ascorbic acid, which together with the copper electrode and zinc causes the electrons to move from place to place using this natural product as their power source.
This phenomenon is known as the redox reaction (oxidation-reduction reaction) and has the ability to ignite and power numerous electronic devices.
“ Potatoes have been chosen because they can potentially be grown almost anywhere, including tropical and subtropical climates. Potatoes are the most abundant crop in the world.
– Haim Rabinowitch –
The history of potato light
According to Rabinowitch, no one had done research before using potatoes as an energy source, although this tuber is the most widely used foodstuff in schools to teach children science.
Physicists Alessandro Volta and Luigi Galvani had already studied various energy production techniques in 1780. These included:
- Paper floated in brine.
- Making “batteries” using two metal plates and lots of soil, or a bucket of water.
The secret of potato light
If this experiment once proved the functionality and usefulness of potato light, why hasn’t it started to be used everywhere?
According to Rabinowitch, all that is needed is “research and dissemination to help people start using potatoes to produce large amounts of energy, especially in areas where electricity is not available.”
However, there are many people who oppose this way of producing electricity from food. Biodiesel, which critics claim will take food away from hungry or famine-affected areas to produce energy, is not considered a successful or viable option.
However, statistics show that about 360 million tonnes of potatoes are produced each year around the world. In addition to being easy to store and long lasting, it is also advantageous to grow them.
It is for this reason that the development and implementation of this type of technology could be economically feasible in areas where there is no electricity.
The manufacture of zinc and copper rods is also slightly cheaper than the manufacture of kerosene lamps. The problem, however, is that using food to light a room is not an attractive option for the majority of the population.
“It’s a low-voltage power supply, but it’s enough to create a battery that can charge cell phones and laptops in places where there is no electricity.”
-Haim Rabinowitch –
