🥔 Potato Power

🔊Can a potato light a light? Let's turn spuds into a battery!

⏱️ 30 minutes💲 about $6●●○Grades 3rd–8th💡 Light It Up

• ✂️ Sharp! A grown-up does this part.
• 👶 Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters.
• 🚫 Not food! Never taste it, and wash your hands when you're done.
• 🧼 Wash your hands after

Gather first

• Potatoes (they're not food after this) · 3 or 4
• Zinc-coated (galvanized) nails or screws · 1 per potato
• Thick bare copper wire (from a hardware store) · a finger-long piece per potato (or copper strips, or pennies from before 1982)
• Wires with alligator clips · 5
• A small LED light · 1 red one (or a small LCD clock)

The big idea: Two different metals in a juicy potato make a battery, and a chain of them adds up.