Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello, I used two 150 ohm resistors in parallel and the circuit does not work. The hydrogen kit works fine, but when I add the resistors in. It just does not work. Can you suggest a solution. My experiment is due March 10


[Administrator note / Project url: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... fuel-cells ]

Hi - note that the project's materials list calls for resistors in the hundreds of milliohm range, so if you used 150 ohm resistors, the resistance is roughly 1000x too high. The correct resistors are linked in the materials list - these resistor values are extremely small, and they probably won't come in a typical resistor kit that has resistors in the tens, hundreds, and thousands of ohms.

Thank you. I purchased new resistors and it works. For this experiment what are some variations that I could test? How can I test differences in load? Would you have other feasible ideas? Apart from temperature variations?

Hi - unfortunately I'm not super familiar with fuel cells and don't have any other suggestions for variations beyond what is already listed in the project. I thought about suggesting testing it with "dirty" water to see how that affects the efficiency and power output, but I'm not sure if that's a bad idea because the impurities and dirt could ruin the fuel cell membrane.

Thanks. That is my concern that impure water will damage the cell