Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am testing four liquids for my penny battery: vinegar, salt water, Powerade, and lemon juice. I will be testing the electrical current and voltage. The current should be different for each liquid. Which liquid will produce more current? Thank you!

Experimenting with the electrolyte sounds like a great way to make it your own experiment. If you keep the number of coins in each stack the same and make stacks with different electrolytes, you'll find out pretty quickly which of those is the best. I actually have no specific feel for how well PowerAde will do in that role so it would be fun if you report back after you complete your experiment and let us know.

Howard

I would distilled water to the list. If you are using salt water, make sure you either add the salt to distilled water, or use the same water without the salt as a control. Otherwise, you don't know what the effects are from the salt and just the water itself. I know what I would predict to work best, but in truth I don't know, it would be just that a prediction. Always believe experimental evidence over theoretical productions, provided you have sufficient experimental data. There are always factors we do not account for when making predictions that effect real world results.