Salt water battery

[Hamburgersrule]

PLEASE HELP!!! I did the salt water battery experiment,but i can’t tell whether or not it’s producing the amount of energy that it should be producing! I have restarted the experiment and am getting the same results. Please help,I need answer. I hope this isn’t bother.

[calixte]

Hello!

This is an interesting issue. I can't exactly help you without any other information. Could you tell me what your setup is so I can help you better?

[Hamburgersrule]

It’s the salt water battery project that is stated in this site. I have four different mason jars that all. Have 120 mL of water with 25 grams of. Salt. The original liquid with salt water is saying that it produces 0.8 volts.

[MadelineB]

Hello,
Is this the Science Buddies project that you are doing?

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... -saltwater

Thanks,
Madeline
Moderator

[Hamburgersrule]

Yes, Ma’am it is. I am testing whether or not adding different substances, like lime juice and distilled white vinegar will change how much the battery will produce. In addition to that, i have a battery with just the salt water solution, and one with the 5mL of 3% hydrogen peroxide.

[MadelineB]

Hello,
As the other expert suggests, it would be helpful if you could provide more details of your experiment. For example, how much vinegar and how much lime juice did you add? Also, what was the voltage when you used a straw to stir the salt water (as suggested in the project procedures)? What are you using to measure the voltage?

Thanks in advance for sharing some details!

Madeline

[bfinio]

Hello,

Chiming in to this thread to clarify that it's important not to get the word "energy" mixed up with "voltage" or "current" when talking about electricity - while we may use those words somewhat interchangeably in everyday language, in physics they all have specific meanings and different units. The project's procedure is asking you to measure both the voltage (measured in volts) and the current (measured in amps) produced by the battery. Certain changes to the battery may only result in changes to the voltage or current, but not the other, so it's important to measure both and not just measure voltage.

[MadelineB]

Thank you bfinio for the expert clarification! And the project procedures for Table 2 provides a good explanation of the steps to follow in order to measure voltage and current. Those steps should apply for looking at the effect of lime juice or vinegar as well.

Thanks!
Madeline

[Hamburgersrule]

what i did was i added one tablespoon of vinegar to one battery and one tablespoon of lime juice to the other battery. I didn’t do the part where i mixed the battery with a straw, because the experiment i am doing, i wanted the lime juice and vinegar variable o replace the stirring and blowing bubbles part. I am using a digital voltage meter set on DCV



Thanks,
Questioner
Hamburgerrule

[MadelineB]

Hello,

As the expert bfinio reminds us:

"The project's procedure is asking you to measure both the voltage (measured in volts) and the current (measured in amps) produced by the battery. Certain changes to the battery may only result in changes to the voltage or current, but not the other, so it's important to measure both and not just measure voltage."

This advice applies to whichever battery conditions you are testing. So some conditions might only result in changes in the current!

Thanks!
Madeline

[Hamburgersrule]

But how do I measure the current?

[MadelineB]

Hello,

The project procedure includes step by step instructions for measuring both voltage and current, using a digital multimeter, as listed in the required materials for the project.

This link as recommended in the project describes how to use a multimeter:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... multimeter

Hope this helps!

Madeline

Amazon and Harbor Freight have low-cost multimeters (perhaps bfinio has better recommendations):

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DCh ... ECU&adurl=