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Rats! Our physics experiment didn't work..


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RS4K Physics, chapter 6 I think it is, where you make a battery out of pennies. I don't know if the "pennies" here aren't really copper (according to what I read they are supposed to be) or I didn't do something else right. So frustrating, because we read the chapter and the kids were all geared up for it. Sigh. Instead we used the voltmeter to measure different batteries and called it a day.

 

I think for the remainder of the year we'll just use the RS4K book as our text, because I do like the way it is written and how it explains concepts, but maybe stick to the couple Science in a Nutshell kits we have left and Snap Circuits.. at least this way nearly everything is provided so I have less chance of messing it up :( Also I can do the text reading separately with my older ds, it is not really keeping the attention of my younger ds anyway.

 

Kate

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Cynthia, what I'm using over here are called "fils", they look like copper and the websites I perused said they are supposed to be copper, but maybe not..

 

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Also, the book said maybe you should scratch up the sides of the coin first, I didn't do that.. it also mentioned that if there was any overlap of layers, like paper towel touching paper towel, this could blow the whole thing (not literally, lol).

 

If I was just doing this with my older (ds 10) we could fool with it more and all, but my ds 6 quickly dropped out. They got the idea behind it, we'll move on this week.. I want to get into the Snap Circuits so my ds 6 can hopefully get a bit more psyched about science. It has been a blah science year for him (100% my fault, unfortunately).

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Check out this site: http://brightest-kidz.squarespace.com/journal/2008/1/17/coin-powered-battery-project.html

 

It sounds similar to the one you did. I wish I had RS4K so I could look through the experiment, but since I don't, take a look at this one and see if there are any differences.

 

I know that when we have done copper experiments with coins in the past, the older the coin the better. But we did have to clean them up a bit because of the oxidation on the old pennies.

 

What a shame it didn't work. It's always such a let down for the kiddos esp. when they are all psyched for it. Have you done the lemon battery experiment? That one is a lot of fun, too.

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