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Electricity & Circuits Activity for Kids
Coin Battery DIY
- Duration: 30 min
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: $0 to $10
Learn how to make a battery out of coins to power an LED!
Material List
- 1Teaspoon of salt
- 1Cup of water
- 1Red LED light
- 6Pennies
- 6Zinc washers
- 1Bowl of ¼ Cup of Vinegar
- 1Piece of Construction Paper
- 1Pen
- 1Pair of scissors
Instructions
- 1In a bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of salt into ¼ cup of vinegar.
- 2Soak the pennies in the salt/vinegar mixture for 5 minutes, then wipe them off.
- 3Trace pennies on construction paper and cut them out to make 6 paper discs.
- 4Soak the paper disks for 5 min in a mixture of 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of salt.
- 5To assemble the battery, stack the items in this order: coin, paper, washer, coin, paper, washer, and so on.
- 6Hold the LED light’s long wire to the penny side of the stack, and the short wire to the zinc side of the stack.
- 7Dim the light and your LED should light up!
How It Works
In this DIY you made a battery! Batteries convert chemical energy into electrical potential energy. That energy can be used to power a circuit, or in our case, an LED light. The more stacks there are, the higher the voltage of the battery and the brighter the light will be. The difference between a 1.5-volt battery and a 9-volt battery is how many stacks of chemicals they have inside.
Check out the Full Lesson on Electricity & Circuits
In this lesson, we learn that:
- Electricity is the flow of electrical energy from one place to another.
- Electricity flows through conductors, but it cannot flow through insulators.
- A closed circuit is needed for electricity to flow and power our electronics.
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