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Bleachy battery building

 This most recent unit was a very short unit for fuel. It lasted no more then a single week.  We learned all about how batteries, electricity, and motors work.  We get to watch our teacher, Will, smash an electric pencil sharpener with a hammer to retrieve the electric motor from inside. With the electric motor we identified each components - stator commutator and rotor. Seeing these components firsthand really helped solidify my understanding. Then using a multimeter we were shown that electricity can flow both ways ways by placing the prongs to the bottom where the battery goes and spinning what is usually the drill piece, we got minimal results with around .2 volts being put out.  Lastly we learned of our action project. To build our very own battery with the electrode and electrolyte of our choice.  I chose bleach and rice wine vinegar for mine and used pennies and some really heavy screws as my electrodes.  Please enjoy my lab report as well as a few pictures of me and G.S. struggling to get a good picture of my voltage output.


Lab report: 

Question:  how effective will bleach work as a electrolyte compared to vinegar


Hypothesis: I think that the bleach will get around .50 volts on the multimeter so the bleach will produce more volts then the vinegar, multimeter



Me putting together my bleach battery.


Materials: Electrodes: 2 metal screws, PENNIES, tin foil.  Electrolytes: vinegar, bleach. Miscellaneous: paper towels, tupperware.

Experiment 1: screws, tin foil, bleach, pennies, tupperware

Experiment 2: screws, pennies, tinfoil, vinegar, tupperware


Construction of experiment: 

 First find a suitable container and pour electrolyte of choice into your container. (electrolyte must be a base, acid or salt) Then put your electrode of choice into your electrolyte (Do not allow your electrodes to touch). Lastly use your multimeter to check voltage output. All done, record your measurements!




observations/data: bleach gave out an entire volt at one point but stayed more around .8 volts




Results: bleach .877 volts vinegar .276 volts

In conclusion My hypothesis was correct, if n slightly off. The bleach surpassed my expectations and even doubled them briefly. It was in fact more effective than vinegar. If we were to add salt to the vinegar would it help even out the playing field?
experiment 1: bleach - 8.77 volts

experiment 2: vinegar - .27 volts









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