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How to Make a Homemade Dry Cell Battery

If you are looking for an easy, safe science experiment for children, either to teach them how electricity works or for the elementary science fair, constructing a dry cell battery is a good project to try. Batteries produce electricity by making electrons in an electrolyte solution. In wet cell batteries, the solution is a liquid, such as acid or salt water. Dry cell batteries use an electrolyte paste. For the purpose of this experiment, we will be using a potato.

Potato
Plate
2 pennies
2 galvanized nails
2-foot strand of copper wire
Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Kitchen knife
Low-voltage LED clock with attachments for wire
Marker
4 alligator clips

Instructions

- 1
  Cut the wire into three 8-inch strands using the wire cutters. Then strip 2 inches of insulation off of the ends of each wire.
- 2
  Attach alligator clips to the end of each wire.
- 3
  Cut the potato in half, and place each half with the flat side down on a plate. With your marker, number your potatoes "1" and "2".
- 4
  Push a penny halfway into each potato.
- 5
  Insert the point side of the galvanized nails into each potato. Make sure that the pennies and nails do not touch.
- 6
  Clamp the end of one wire to each galvanized nail.
- 7
  Connect the other end of the wire from potato 2 to the penny from potato 1.
- 8
  Clamp the remaining wire onto the penny of potato 2. Then connect this wire to the positive connection of the LED clock.
- 9
  Clip the wire running off the galvanized nail in potato 1 to the negative connection on the LED clock.

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