Monday 10 December 2012

Potatoes are cool

Remember a couple of months ago Littletree got a kit to make a liquid-powered clock… (here)

Well, she’s been experimenting with it, trying all sorts of different things that she can run with cranberry juice, and then trying what other things will run the clock other than juice.

Littletree asked if we could do a potato, and I'm thinking, hey, why waste a perfectly good potato when there's half a lemon already cut open in the fridge. So she tried a lemon, and it works.

She asked again if she could try a potato, and I thought, hey, why waste a perfectly good potato?I said, “why not try an orange - we can cut up an orange into eight segments, and you can use 2/8 for your clock, and eat the rest for a morning snack” (her current favourite morning snack is an orange cut into eights, much of which is eaten while playing around with fractions).

And Littletree said, "yeah, but I want to try a potato". “Why a potato?” I asked.

Because potatoes are cool, for no reason.”

02 potato clock

And incidentally, using zinc and copper electrodes in sequence, they can power a small digital clock.

1 comment:

  1. Lol, I had the same "clock" as schoolgirl - Congratulatios Littletree!

    xoxo

    Orianne

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your lovely words, witty banter and entertaining discussion :)