That's Shocking!

"Can coins give you a shock?"

They can if you try this experiment!

Things You Will Need:

lemon juice 5 copper pennies 5 dimes or other coins that are not copper 9 one inch squares of paper towels

What To Do:

• Soak the paper towels in the lemon juice.
• Make a stack of coins, alternating pennies and dimes.
• Put a lemon juice soaked piece of paper towel between each coin.
• Slightly moisten one of your fingertips on each hand and hold the pile of coins and paper towel squares between your fingers.

What You Find:

You will feel a small tingle or electrical shock when you hold the stacks with your moistened fingertips.

WHY?:

You have just made something very much like the batteries you buy at the grocery store. It is called a wet cell. The lemon juice acts as an acid solution that conducts electricity created by the separated metals of the two coins.

The batteries that you are familiar with are actually two or more dry cells. In each dry cell, two metals (a zinc metal container and a carbon rod) are separated by blotting paper soaked in a strong acid.