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Q:
Can a potatoe light up a light bulb?
- allison Khon (age 23)
sacramento, California
A:
Allison -
Yes! It is possible to make a /very/ small battery using a potato.
(You can also do this using a lemon.) You can find the details on how
to do it and why it works under the "Electricity and Magnets: Circuits"
section of our answers list. The one thing that that answer doesn't
point out is that if you can't get the bulb to light with only one
potato, you should try using several. You may need as many as 4
potatoes to light a single bulb because they put out such a small
amount of electricity.
-Tamara
(published on 10/22/2007)
Follow-up on this answer.
