Electricity and Faith

Make a battery from pennies. . . impossible. As Queen of Science, Lizzy always amazed students with how easy it was to make electricity.

You learn more from your failures than from your successes.

Batteries convert chemical energy into electrical potential energy, which can be used to power a circuit. In this experiment, the battery will power an LED light. The more cells or stacks there are, the higher the voltage of the battery and the brighter the light. The difference between a 1.5-volt battery and a 9-volt battery is how many cells they have inside.

Material List

• Salt
• Water
• Red LED
• 6 pennies
• 6 zinc washers
• ¼ cup of vinegar
• Construction paper

Instructions

In a bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of salt into ¼ cup of vinegar. You need this mixture to clean the pennies. Soak the pennies for 5 minutes, then wipe them off.

Trace pennies on construction paper and cut out 6 paper discs.

Soak the paper disks for 5 min in a mixture of 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of salt.  This mixture serves as the electrolyte for our experiment. The paper discs must be saturated with the mixture.

To assemble the battery, stack the items in this order: coin, paper, washer, coin, paper, washer, and so on. Each coin and washer combination makes one cell. After a quick Internet search, I found 100 zinc washers for $5 and 100 LED lights for $7.

Hold the LED light’s long wire to the penny side of the stack, and the short wire to the zinc side of the stack.

Dim the room lights and watch the LED light up!

Making Electricity 

In 1800, Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist, chemist and lay Catholic, invented the voltaic pile, an early electric battery. His battery became an effective device for storing electricity. Because of his faith and determination, Volta accomplished what many thought was impossible.

“…through the special mercy of God I have never, as far as I know, wavered in my faith… In this faith I recognize a pure gift of God, a supernatural grace…”

Alessandro Volta

Don’t lose faith. Yes, it can be difficult to keep going when we face obstacles. However, every successful person knows that you learn more from your failures than from your successes. Make learning and growing your priority.

 “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 17:20

Copyright © 2023 Chuck Locklear

Also, see Growth Mindset.