How To Make a 3 Penny Battery

is there free energy hiding in your
spare change in this video you’ll learn
how to turn a handful of pennies into
batteries that can power some of your
small electronic devices
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you
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for this project I’ll need pennies my
neighbor Trevor gave me these and I’ll
begin sorting them by date I want
pennies newer than 1982 because they’re
nearly 98% zinc
okay I’ve picked out 10 pennies that I
think will work so I’ll use this 100
grit sandpaper and start sanding one
side of the penny actually this may be
too much work so I’ll try some
double-sided sticky tape and an orbital
sander this is working much better to
expose the zinc but the adhesive is
melted from the friction and left these
pennies in a sticky mess no problem I’ll
just use some adhesive remover to clean
them up and now they’re looking great
it’s time to build a battery I’ll cut
some thin cardboard into pieces just
bigger than the penny and throw them in
some vinegar while those are soaking
I’ll start my battery cell by placing
one of the pennies with the copper side
down on a piece of aluminum foil as you
can see nothing is happening yet so I’ll
blot dry one of my cardboard pieces and
place it on top this time when I measure
the voltage I’m excited to see over half
a volt from this one cell I’ll add
another penny in cardboard and repeat
the process until I’ve stacked up all my
pennies now the cells are connected in
series and the electric potential has
jumped to nearly 6 volts Wow this should
be more than enough voltage to drive an
LED so I’ll test it out with this one it
works perfectly and I can’t believe how
brilliantly this lights up just for fun
I’m testing the current draw and it’s
pulling about 170 micro amps I can even
light up two at once okay so it works
and it’s actually really impressive that
I’m getting electricity from Penny’s but
now I’m curious to know how long this
can last I’ll use some electrical tape
told everything in place and try to fix
these cardboard edges because they
shouldn’t be touching I’ll do my best to
make it airtight to prevent the wet
cardboard from drying out too quickly
and then carry it with me for the next
couple of hours to watch for when it
dies out okay so now it’s more than two
days later and I really can’t believe
what I’m seeing
the green light is still on which means
these little pennies are still pumping
out juice this is awesome so I want to
try another idea I’ve picked up a
calculator from the dollar store and
I’ll remove the screws on the back so I
can get to the battery once that’s
removed I’ll pull the negative and
positive leads out of the casing and now
I’ll need to make another penny battery
this time I don’t feel like sanding the
pennies so I’m adding these zinc washers
I got from the hardware store for about
three
cents each I need around one and a half
volts so I’ll use three pennies three
washers and three pieces of cardboard
soaked in vinegar this time I’ve rounded
the cardboard edges so they won’t be a
problem and I’ll stack them with the
washer on the bottom the cardboard in
the middle and the penny on the top this
is one cell and I need three so I’ll
stack up two more the penny on the top
is the positive side and the zinc washer
on the bottom is the negative I’m
getting just over 2 volts and 700 micro
amps so I’ll add wires to the terminals
and use some more electrical tape to
hold it together time to test it on the
calculator I’ll press the on button and
it’s incredible the calculator fires
right up I’m testing out a few functions
and everything calculates correctly so
now I just need to clean these wires up
a bit I’ll chip holes in the casing and
hardwire my pennies into the battery
leads then tape the penny stack to the
back a penny powered calculator I really
am impressed to how well this worked out
and still patiently waiting for this
little green light to die out well
there’s an idea that’s worth a few cents
if you liked this project perhaps you’ll
like some of my others check them out at
the king of random calm
you
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