Making Batteries out of Coins

PROBLEM

I wanted to do this experiment because it is extremely interesting. Everyone knows about and uses batteries, but not many people know how they work. They don’t know that you can make a battery out of common household items. For this experiment, I wanted to see which coin / electrolyte combination would make the best battery. I would test the combinations penny and quarter, penny and dime, and penny and nickel to see which one would create the most voltage.

HYPOTHESIS

My Hypothesis was that the Penny and Quarter combination would create the most voltage. I thought this because quarters were the biggest coin out of all of the coins that I was testing, and I thought it would carry the most electrons.

PROCEDURE

• 1. Purchase all-tread, plastic end caps, nuts, gasket

  2. Gathered coins into groups.

  3. Cleaned coins with vinegar.

  4. Cut small pieces of paper towels and soaked them in vinegar.

  5. Build the cells, one by one.

  6. Counted each cell to make sure that I had the right number.

  7. I tested the voltage of the cells with my voltmeter.

1. Collected data and finished project.

Conclusion

The data that I got did not agree with my hypothesis. The penny and nickel combination was better than the other combinations. I believe my experiment was a success, even though my hypothesis is wrong. I found the best way to make a battery out of coins. This was the first way that a battery was built. It was actually called a Voltaic Pile, Alessandro Volta first discovered how batteries really worked. The first voltaic pile was just like mine, except he didn’t use coins but small sheets of the same material. Overall, I think that my project is very accurate, I tested four and eight cells for each combination. The four cell was just about half of the eight cell every time.

Abstract

I always love doing projects on electricity, and this year I kept on going with electricity. This year, I made batteries out of coins. Making a battery out of coins is very simple, but it takes a long time. My hypothesis was that pennies and quarters would have the most voltage because quarters are bigger than the other coins. These batteries are built in cells, a pattern of two different coins and a thin layer of paper towel soaked in vinegar. I want to see which pattern of coins would have the most voltage, which would be the best battery.

Making my project was fairly simple, it involves coins, paper towels, vinegar, aluminum foil, and a voltmeter. First I had to think of a couple combinations of coins that I wanted to test. Once I got them I started to sort the coins and put them in vinegar so they could become clean and better for testing. Then I started to cut paper towels into small circles and dip them in vinegar, this is so the coins do not touch, and it makes a cell. After that I got a plate and put paper towels over it so the electricity doesn’t go throughout the plate or get grounded. After that I started to stack the coins into their cells on top of a strip of aluminum foil. Once I got my desired number of cells I put an end of the voltmeter to the aluminum foil and the other on the top coin then I got my data.

For my combinations of coins I had, penny and nickel, penny and dime, and penny and quarter. I stacked the coins into eight cells and tested to see which combinations would have the highest voltage. It turns out that the penny and nickel had the highest voltage of 3 volts. Both of the others had 2.3 volts.

I was very surprised to find that the penny and nickel had the most voltage. I was also surprised that the penny dime and the penny quarter had the same voltage. I thought the quarter would have more than a dime because it is a lot bigger. My hypothesis was wrong in that the penny and quarter combination didn’t have the most voltage. I believe that my experiment was very accurate. In my data table you can see that the voltage for the four cell battery is about half of the eight cell battery. It is clear to tell that my experiment was very accurate. I could improve my project by adding more cells to the battery, if the battery was bigger I would have more data, but making a cell takes a lot of time. Overall, I believe that this experiment was a success.