WEBVTT - How Batteries Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.759 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.400 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.040 and I'm an editor of how stuff Works dot Com. 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.440 Sitting across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:33.479 Resistance is useless. That was because of an honor of 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.960 our topic today, Yes, batteries. We're gonna talk about batteries. Now. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:40.440 This kind of falls in line with some of our 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.280 earlier podcasts. You may remember our Basic Electronics podcast that 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.520 we did ages ago, and this kind of falls into 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.600 that same sort of category. We wanted to kind of 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:55.120 talk about what batteries are, how they work, and kind 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.880 of just sort of give you a basic understanding. Now, 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.600 the interesting thing about batteries is that it involves a 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.800 lot of chemistry. So we should have given this to 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.760 that science podcast. Well, part of the reason that I 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.319 suggested doing batteries, and so it sort of came to 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.720 me when I was working my way through a book 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:19.000 called Empires of Light, which is a um history of electricity. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.760 Basically what by Jill I'm probably pronouncing your name wrong, 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.600 Jonas j o n. And he asked, may maybe even 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.320 be Jones. But it's really uh, wellly so far, I'm 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.039 about a third the way through. The book's really interesting 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.760 and they and uh As Jill started working through the 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:41.240 basics of the history of electricity. Part of the early history, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.560 of course, involves batteries because we weren't exactly plugging stuff 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.280 into the wall. Uh, really much past the early part 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.520 of the last century, you know, a little bit into 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.320 the nineteenth century, but really it's a twenty and twenty 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:59.880 one century, you know. Yeah, And uh to add on 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.480 to that, I mean, I have an interest in batteries 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.960 because it helps explain how absolutely ridiculous the robots and 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.000 computer's plan was in the Matrix to turn humans into 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.520 giant batteries, because really that's an incredibly inefficient way of 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.920 getting your power supply. That's a very good point that 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.520 I hadn't thought of. Yeah, I didn't think you would have, 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.720 um because it really has no other bearing on this discussion. 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:27.520 It was just me trying to throw in yet another 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:29.800 reference to a science fiction film. By the way, I 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.120 still love that first Matrix movie. I just I refuse 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:37.839 to acknowledge the other entries in that series. But let's 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.480 talk about batteries. Yes, and as it as it turns out, 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.919 batteries are quite old. Yeah. We're not talking about the 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.400 batteries in your closet. I mean those might also be 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:52.480 quite old. We're talking about the actual concept of batteries themselves. Yes. Um. 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.239 Actually one of the very first things that made me 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.040 think about it was the Layden jar, the reference to 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.520 the Laden jar and Empires of Light uh, which was 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:05.120 created created in Leyden in the Netherlands. UH professor Peter 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:09.359 van Mussen Muschenbrook and his friend Andrea s. Cuneus. We're 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.679 working on an experiment in the mid eighteenth century, and 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.680 what they discovered was they could take a jar UH 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.480 line it with a metal film on the inside and 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.919 outside about the bottom two thirds of the jar UH, 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.040 and with an electrolytic liquid inside. They could put a 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.640 metal rod down into the jar with a with a 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.040 cork uh to to cap off the battery and it 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:35.640 would store an electrical charge. Was it turns out, uh. 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:37.280 You know, I had always heard of that as being 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.760 one of the very first examples of a battery, but 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:46.240 back in ninety eight, UM a an archaeologist, a German 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:51.760 archaeologist named will Wilhelm kronig Uh found a clay jar 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.280 UH containing a copper cylinder with an iron rod in it. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:02.360 And apparently the people living in the area around Baghdad 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.320 had batteries as old as well. They think they're pretty 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:10.440 sure it's a battery. There's no proof, but the design 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.320 is very, very similar to the laden jar and these 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.680 existed as possibly as far back as two b c. Well, 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.159 what's interesting is they found those clay jars in a 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.720 giant stone statue in the shape of a rabbit carrying 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:28.000 an enormous drum. Okay, that's that's a lie, but you 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.800 may you may remember what Chris is talking about if 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.200 you if you're a fan of the show MythBusters. Yes, 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.839 MythBusters did an episode about these clay jars and whether 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.680 or not the devices themselves could be batteries. One of 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.320 the theories, or i suppose a hypothesis that was put forward, 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.000 was that these were part of a religious or spiritual 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:53.640 ritual in which you would feel a tingling sensation by 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.640 holding the these jars and you know, essentially completing a 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.040 circuit that you you would feel the that tingling as 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.000 the electricity moved through you because it was a very 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.559 low voltage and a really low current, so it wasn't 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.760 it wasn't going to actually cause damage. As I recall 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:13.360 on that episode, they ended up rigging the clay jars 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:19.320 they made with an actual electric circuit and shocked um 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.279 atom as I recall, and to a point where Adam 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:28.760 was very displeased. Uh, because it could have been potentially 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.440 very dangerous. But but yes, that's a good example. Those 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.280 those may very well have been batteries. Now what were 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:39.760 they powering? Probably not ancient iPods No. Um. According to 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:42.960 the BBC article that I found on it, which dates 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.200 back a couple of years. UM, it is possible that 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:53.240 they were being used for electroplating with gold. UM. Basically, uh, 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.919 you know, using the electric current to plate things with 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.880 a very very thin layer of gold or silver. Um. 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.640 There's no proof again that there's no documentation. Apparently the 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:09.240 instruction book is long gone um and um, but there 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.040 there are no the thing is what you were talking 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.640 about with the MythBusters show. Um, there's no wiring that 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.000 went along with it. So it doesn't appear as though 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.240 they were wired in a series and even with as 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.120 with the Leyden jar um, they found out that although 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.880 these these uh you know, we'll call them primitive I 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.680 guess batteries uh can store electricity, they can't store that much. 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:34.799 The replicas of the clay jar uh batteries from the 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:39.640 Baghdad Fine generally produce around zero point eight two volts each. 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.160 But when you wire them in series or no, i'm sorry, 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.400 in parallel, in parallel, um, then you can produce a 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.040 much larger charge. It's just that they didn't find anything 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:51.960 like that. So they could have been used in a 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:56.880 religious ceremony to prove uh, the the deification of someone. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.520 If you get the shock one time and you don't 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.200 the other time, I mean like, oh wow, this this power. 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.880 They have this power. Obviously they are divine in some 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.680 way or for electroplating. Both they both examples are kind 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:13.360 of interesting, but there's no right and uh And going 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.200 to what you said about series and and parallel, that's 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.920 a good thing to mention really quickly. Um, if you 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.200 are hooking up batteries in parallel, that means that you're 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.000 not hooking them in to end. They are all hooked 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.600 into a circuit of some sort, some sort of of 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:32.840 wiring pattern where UH, that increases the current that the 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.320 batteries are able to supply. If you link them in series, 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:40.240 which is essentially end to end, that increases the voltage 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:45.200 but not the current. So series is increase in volts, UH, 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.920 parallel is increasing current and in either case they do 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.280 not affect the other, right voltage, voltage is increased, current 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:57.240 remains the same, or current is increased, voltage remains the same. UM, 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:03.360 let's talk about another early battery, UH, the voltaic pile. Yes, 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.040 this was a battery that was built by Alessandro Volta 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:12.080 in eighteen hundred. And what Volta did was he discovered 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:17.560 that by creating layers of zinc, a some sort of 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.960 of of separator which he used blotting paper that had 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.440 been soaked in salt water and silver. Then I'm sorry, 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:28.280 silver was the other layer. So had zinc this blotting 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.280 paper that was soaked in brine essentially then silver, and 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.760 UH found that that would also allow a transfer of 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:41.439 electricity if you created a wire between the top and bottom. 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.000 Not to argue with you, but in the research that 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:48.360 I did, Britannica said that it was copper and zinc. Well, 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.839 it may very well be In our article on our 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.840 site it says silver. We'll have to look into that, 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:56.640 and that's wrong. We'll have to fix it. Yeah, we 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:58.920 can fix it in our article that's where the wonderful 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.280 things about the Internet. Actually, they may in a way, 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.120 they may both be right, because these early experimenters were 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.800 trying a number of different metals. You see which ones 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.080 were more. They may both work. But obviously we know 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.240 that copper is an excellent conductor of electricity. Um, and uh, 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.320 it is possible that he could have built one that 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.840 way too. Yeah, it's actually it is true that you 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:23.760 can try various combinations of different metals. The most important 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.400 thing is that the metals have to have. Uh, you 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.240 have to have a positive electrode and a negative electrode. Right, 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.600 you have to have one metal where there's going to 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.000 be an excess of electrons. That means it's going to 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.160 be the negative one because electrons carry a negative charge. 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:40.760 That that would be the anode and the other ones 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:45.200 the cathode, which has the an absence of electrons, meaning 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.520 it has a positive charge. Now, as we know, negative 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.640 is attracted to positive and vice versas, so electrons want 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.079 to go where there is going to be a more 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:55.959 positive charge. They don't want to be where there's a 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.800 heavy negative charge because like repels like you know, as 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:03.920 far as charges go. So the trick here is to 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.920 create a situation where you have a negatively charged and 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:12.280 a positively charged electrode close to but not touching each other, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.600 suspended in some sort of solution which we call the 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.760 electro light, which allows the passage of ions but does 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.120 not allow the passage of electrons to go between the two. 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.080 Then you hook the two up with a wire of 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.720 some sort which would create a pathway for electrons to 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.880 flow through. And you could actually do this yourself if 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.400 you really want. You can take a battery and put 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:38.280 a wire on one end and a wire on the 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.280 other end, the two terminals the negative and positive terminals, 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.600 and that would create the connection needed for the chemical 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:48.040 reaction to take place that produces electricity. It would also 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.400 kill your battery really quickly. Yes, um, you normally would 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.720 want to put a load on that wire, a load 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.960 being some sort of something being powered by that electricity, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.080 like a light bulb would be a class one right yes, 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.560 or a fan or a motor or an iPod, right yeah, 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.640 And and So what happen is the the electrons from 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.000 the negative terminal would flow through the wire, would go 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.440 to whatever the load was on that wire, power whatever 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.480 it was, and then continue on the way to the 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:23.120 positive terminal. Now, once HiT's the positive terminal, the electrons 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.080 start to recombine with various ions that've been generated by 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.080 this chemical reaction within the battery. And depending on the 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.040 type of battery, it may mean that the battery is 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.880 slowly losing its ability to generate power and it won't 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.400 regain it and like once you use it, it's gone. 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:41.720 That's while a lot of the batteries are when you 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.640 go into like an electronic store and you're just buying 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.040 double A batteries or something along those lines, most of 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.520 the batteries fall into that category. I mean, you can't 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.000 get rechargeable batteries, and that's a totally different discussion. But 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:55.280 the in general, what we're talking about here is the 0:11:55.360 --> 0:12:00.080 chemicals that are that make up the composition composition of 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.959 the battery, um the various electrodes. As this chemical reaction 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.840 happens within the battery and it generates these electrons and 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.680 the electrons recombine, uh, you lose more and more of 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:16.800 the active elements of that battery, until eventually the resistance 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.080 of the battery is so high that you are no 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:23.400 longer generating electrons or you know, you're not creating that flow. 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:25.680 That also explains why let's say that you have a 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.280 flashlight you've got you know, you leave the flashlight on, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.520 you know how the flashlight eventually gets dimmer over very 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:38.360 gradual time frame and then eventually I'll just go out. Uh. Well, 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:40.920 that could be indicative of two things. One your lightbulb 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.679 could be burning out, or two the batteries are starting 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:50.680 to lose their their uh potency, the resistance within the battery, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.360 because there is an internal resistance inside the battery. That 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.400 resistance grows as those chemicals get used up in these 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:03.400 reactions so that it's able to put out fewer electrons. 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.760 The voltage begins to drop, and that's why you start 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.040 to see that gradual depowering. Yeah, Volta saw that in 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.240 his voltaic pile. Um because basically what happened just sounds 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:20.240 so disgusting. UM because of course the salt water is 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:22.480 going to dry up and in the in the voltake 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:28.040 device and UM. At that point, the that the chemical 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.079 reaction is not going to take place anymore. But also 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:35.160 oxidation that's going on, what he said, because that actually 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.839 uses up the metal. I'm sorry i jumped ahead. I 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.960 didn't realize you were going to say that too. Yeah, 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.720 oxidation that the electrochemical reaction that happens inside of batteries, 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:50.839 an oxidation reduction reaction, which means that one of the 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:56.800 elements within that reaction is is oxidizing and one's reducing. 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.640 Now it's funny because reducing doesn't mean what you necessarily 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:04.839 think it means. It's actually the whole oxidation reduction thing 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.040 is one of those things that always confused me in 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:13.559 physics class um. But reduction is actually a gain of electrons. 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.560 An oxidation is a loss of electrons. That's why it's 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.880 That's why it's confusing, Right, you're reducing, but you're gaining electrons. 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.560 You're actually it's it's a whole thing. It also turns 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.360 into it's because you're you're needed to focus on the oxygen, 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.720 not the electrons, is the problem. But at any rate, 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.280 that's the kind of reaction that's going on. And yeah, 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.920 if you run one of these will take piles long enough, 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.400 the you kind of get this corrosive material that ends 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.280 up being unusable for batteries. By the way, you can 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.000 build your own voltaic pile. It's not very difficult at all. 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:52.000 Um In fact, let me give you a recipe. This 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.280 is a very easy way. Now, granted you're not gonna 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.680 be able to power anything with this necessarily, but you 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.320 might be able to detect the voltage. If you have 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.440 a very sensitive voltmeter, you might be able to to 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.960 to see how much charge you are creating. But what 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:07.680 you can do is you get some nickels, and you 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.520 get some pennies. Um Or you could use dimes and 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.680 pennies if you wanted to, but nickels and pennies are 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.440 pretty simple. And you get uh, some paper towels, and 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.440 you get some water and some salt. All right, you 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:21.680 create a solution with the water and salt. You put 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.680 as much salt as the water can hold in solution, 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.320 and then you soak the paper towels in that brine 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.000 solution you've created, and you start to build layers, and 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:34.920 you do a nickel, You do the paper towel, penny 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:38.400 paper towel, nickel paper towel, penny paper towel. The taller 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.000 you build that tower, the greater the voltage you will 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:46.440 generate UM and it should increase the same amount through 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.400 each each element of that bill take pile that you've 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:54.280 added each each three part element, the penny nickel and 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:59.800 paper towel layers UM and uh it's just a very 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:04.360 bowl simple uh um experiment you can do. You can also, 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.120 of course you probably have seen this. You can make 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:11.680 batteries other things like a potato. You have to use 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.520 the correct kind of electrodes. But if you put the 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.680 two electrodes within a potato close enough so that the 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.680 electron exchange can occur or the ion exchange I should 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.440 say can occur, but not so close that they're actually touching, 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.360 because then you just create a short circuit. The potato 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:33.160 will facilitate the electro light transition of ions. So you 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.440 can power like a tiny light bulb by light bulb, 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.560 I mean led light UM. And you can even hook 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.680 potatoes in series. And the best thing about this experiment 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.240 is after you are done lighting up your room with 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:47.520 l e d s powered by potatoes, you can have 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:52.200 French fries. There is there are some intermediary steps. By 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.080 the way, they don't l D s do not turn 0:16:55.120 --> 0:17:04.960 potatoes into French fries. Belgians do. I'm a fretz. So 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.200 So anyhow, in doing research, Jonathan reminded me of this 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:13.040 Energizer you know, the battery company website, and uh, it 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.680 basically shows you an illustration of the different parts that 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:20.200 make up today's battery. And in some ways it's very 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.960 similar to those very early batteries. It's just more powerful 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:27.359 and and more efficient, but much more compact. Yes, that 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:32.040 that's true. Um also um like like as we were 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:36.119 talking before about the experiments done by the early philosophers 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.960 who were investigating batteries and electricity. UM, depending on the 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:45.600 manufacturer and the application, they may use different materials for 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.159 the cathode and anode and uh, you know, even the 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.840 electrolyte inside, depending on the purpose. Of course, they're always 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.479 trying to get a better, more efficient battery. But in 0:17:55.520 --> 0:18:00.159 the case of the Energizer battery, UM, the cathode is 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:05.600 the case which is made up of manganese dioxide mixture. Yeah. Yeah, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.640 there's a there's a steel tube essentially, like that's that's 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:13.080 the outside of the battery, UM, and that that's part 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.639 of the cathode. So you've got that steel tube and 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.840 then which of course is capped on both ends. Uh, 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.719 And then the interior of the tube is coated with 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.840 this manganese dioxide mixture. It's a powder and um and yeah, 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:30.200 that that's the the cathode. So that's carrying the the 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.120 what they call the positive electrical charge, which sounds so 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.560 confusing when you sit there and think, oh wait, electrons 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.080 are negative. But essentially this is the positive element, right, 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.720 This is what's generating the positive ions right right. And um, 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.640 of course, as in uh Volta's experiment, UM, you need 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.520 a separator UM which is made of an energizer's case 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:55.280 again a non woven fibrous fabric, and the website actually 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.000 says that the anode is made of powdered zinc. Ah. Okay. 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.320 So the the operator's job here is mainly just to 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.920 make sure that the anode and cathode do not touch, 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.280 because that would generate essentially a short circuit. You would 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.119 no longer have a working battery. It would be it 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.399 would It would just be useless, is what would be. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.520 And it will also possibly generate a lot of heat. Yes, 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.840 think of it as the battery chaperone. Now you too, 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:26.360 art So anyway, the zinc acts as the the the anode, 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:30.480 that's the so that's this is the negatively charged um material. 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.320 And then you have the electrolyte, which is the potassium 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.280 hydroxide that is inserted in this. That's what's allowing the 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.080 facilitating the passage of ions between the anode and the 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.280 cathode um. And then you've got the positive terminal and 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.639 the negative terminal. You hook the you put out of 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.359 the right right, Yeah, outside the battery, So back to 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.120 the steel part. You've got a positive terminal and negative terminal. 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:00.000 Oh and I forgot, there's a collector. A collector. Yeah, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:04.480 there's a brass pen that is inserted the The base 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.200 of the brass pin acts as the negative terminal, so 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:09.960 that's where all the electrons are coming through. But the 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:15.719 brass pins job is to act as a conduit for electrons. 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.960 So so at the very center of an energizer battery 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.919 is this brass pin. You hook the plug your battery 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.320 into whatever device you're talking about, you know, like a 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.440 flashlight will stay with that. The electrons will go through 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.360 the negative terminal, through the circuitry of the flashlight, powering 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.639 the bulb, and then back in through the positive terminal, 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:40.320 and through that process, the manganese dioxide and the zinc 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.800 are going to start turning into this these inert forms 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.560 where they are no longer charged one way or the other. 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:51.480 And uh, eventually you start to run out of the 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.400 active components and you've got a dead battery. Right. Also 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.840 keep in mind, just gonna throw this out there. Remember 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:03.080 electricity flows one way, current flows the other way, because 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:08.160 Benjamin Franklin thought that current was carried by positively charged particles, 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.520 not negatively charged. Once, as it turns out, the answer 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:18.360 was negative. So anyway, so that just happened. But yes, 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:23.199 the Energizer web page does have very helpful illustrations and 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:27.280 animations kind of showing you not just how the batteries work, 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:31.440 but how Energizer builds these batteries, the various elements that 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.720 go into it, and exactly what happens while you're powering 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.520 the device. So it's um, it's it's a nice little 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.920 uh website kind of a tutorial. Um, if you want 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.920 a more visual element to this discussion. Yeah, and it 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:51.119 really gets into how uh Energizer makes alkaline batteries, which is, 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.160 you know, basically this the standard type that you find 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.280 on the on the counter at your local store. Now, 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:01.520 there are other kinds. Of course, we mentioned chargeable batteries, 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:05.760 but there are are lithium batteries UM, which are a 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:08.920 little weird according to UH, to the research I had 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:13.120 done on Britannica UM, there is no separator between the 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:18.000 anode and a liquid cathode. UH. But as but a 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:23.320 a layer automatically forms on the lithium, which basically makes 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.639 it its own separator. UH. This, this layer as it 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.439 forms is I guess as it's being used, was at 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:33.040 least my understanding of that UM. And that allows a 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:36.800 much more high power density, which is why you see 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:41.240 them the lithium batteries advertised as a more powerful battery 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:45.080 for applications such as cameras, digital cameras. I see them 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:48.880 often advertised in that for that particular application because they 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.600 have a higher power density. But it have a longer 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.640 shelf life. Yeah, they do, they do, and it's apparently 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:58.680 because of the metals used inside. They're also more expensive. Yeah, 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:00.720 these are the kind of batteries. The small ones are 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:05.359 the kinds that power things like UM like electric hearts. 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:08.439 You want, you want a battery that's gonna last a 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:11.680 really long time for that kind of thing. Clearly, you 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:13.920 don't want to have to pop open, pop it open 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:16.560 and switch the nine vold out every couple of weeks. 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:20.920 That would be irritating. But yeah, there's there's carbon, zinc batteries, 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:26.359 zinc chloride, there's um mercury batteries, silver oxide batteries, zinc 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:30.480 air batteries, and there's lots of different types. And all 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:34.200 the ones I just named were non rechargeable batteries. So 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:36.920 you know what, I think we should probably do another 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:40.760 episode in the future about rechargeable batteries as well as 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:43.240 a kind of a discussion about some of the things 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:46.680 that can happen when batteries go wrong. Yeah, I think 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.240 I think that would be, uh, that would be very good. Now, 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:52.680 of course, uh, you know, it's possible that an alkaline 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:55.679 battery will if you leave it in a device for 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:58.919 too long, it will eventually corrode. Yes, but there are 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:03.480 other instances to like car batteries, and the chemicals inside 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:07.440 batteries can be caustic, so you don't and you've got 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:11.520 to remember that the steel canisters that surround the batteries 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:15.680 keep that those those elements under pressure, not the Queen 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:19.359 uh David Bowie song. However I am singing and now 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:22.520 I am too. It's a terror of knowing what those 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:27.320