Batteries: The Lemonade Of Life

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Just in time for the return of the school year, we're going "Back To School" by revisiting a classic at-home experiment that turns lemons into batteries — powerful enough to turn on a clock or a small lightbulb. But how does the science driving that process show up in household batteries we use daily? Host Emily Kwong and former host Maddie Sofia talk battery 101 with environmental engineer Jenelle Fortunato.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from Boland Branch.
0:04.2	Experience your best sleep in the softest organic cotton sheets.
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0:12.4	Come with code NPR. Exclusions apply,
0:15.2	C-site for details. Hey Shortwavers Emily Kwong here, so it is time to go back to school.
0:29.2	Summer is wrapping up and school is in session. A fine time we thought to bring you an
0:35.5	episode from a classic shortwave series called Back to School. I know so
0:40.1	original. It's where we take a concept that we learned in the classroom, but go into greater
0:45.1	depth. And today we're going to talk about how to build a lemon battery and what it teaches
0:50.6	us about the future of clean energy. I brought this episode to
0:54.2	founding host Maddie Sophia and it was inspired by a listener question from
0:57.8	Violet Thomas in Ukyalvik, Alaska. You're always bringing us back to Alaska, Emily
1:02.1	Kwong. Any opportunity to Alaska, Emily Kwong.
1:02.8	Any opportunity to go back, I will take.
1:06.0	Violet wanted to know what the plus sides and minus sides of a battery mean.
1:11.9	Simple question, but it took me back all the way back to science class and the
1:17.5	lemon battery experiment. Oh yeah yeah yeah where you run some wires from a
1:22.0	lemon and try to power something like a tiny light bulb. Yes.
1:25.0	We love science, yes we do.
1:28.0	We love science, science, you.
1:32.0	We love science, you. We love science, science, you. I love a good science cheer quang right? So this video is from a science
1:38.5	outreach program called Science You hosted by Penn State. Can you get power from a lemon?
	...

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