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Batteries from Everyday Things

By Cy Tymony Illustrations by Julian Honoré

You will need

Lemon or other acidic fruit

Nail, paper clip, or twist-tie

Heavy copper wire

Water

Salt

Paper towel

Pennies and nickels

Plate

No one can dispute the usefulness of electricity. But what do you do if you’re in a remote area without AC power or batteries? Make sneaky batteries, of course! And once you know how to make sneaky batteries, you’ll never again be totally out of power sources.

1. The fruit battery.

Insert a nail or paper clip into a lemon. Then stick a piece of heavy copper wire into the lemon. Make sure the wire is close to, but does not ...

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