Project update 4: Stacks on Stacks on Stacks
What's green and comes in stacks?
CA$H money
Okay yeah, but what else?
Our Battery!
Truth be told, this battery has not been nearly as successful as we hoped at the start. We've been plagued with a wide variety of issues, including but not limited to leaks, deformations, and contaminations. But in the true spirit of engineering, we slapped some tape on it and kept moving forward.
Two weeks ago, we met with a man from Tel Aviv University, who does research on algae and bacteria symbioses. He plans on doing service at the greenhouse, which came in handy for us. He was more than willing to listen to our questions, and provided us with several rather important answers that we weren't able to find in the original papers.
From there, we made the decision to 3D print the battery. This allowed us more flexibility and precision when designing its structure, though limited the battery's size (our largest battery, which wasn't more than 10 cm long, took almost 14 hours to print). We played with a few designs in the small stages before finally settling on one that we deemed best.
Of course, things couldn't just go smoothly. To begin with, the larger battery ran out of material to print when it was most of the way done, so we had to print the rest and glue it on. Then, when filling it with water, we discovered another issue-- the battery walls, made hollow to improve printing speed, had slight leaks that allowed water to fill up and escape! It took a significant amount of thought, agar, and hot glue to fix this problem, though I believe we've finally got it.
And now here we are. Three weeks from the start, after our trials and tribulations, we find ourselves with a working battery...................... that generates (wait for it) POINT ONE (.1) VOLTS. That's right. You heard it here first, folks. Three weeks of work and a potato pulls a higher voltage.
And yet, all was not lost! Through our prototyping, we had in our possession another, smaller but still functioning battery of similarly low effectiveness. But when we STACKED them (aka ran them in series), we produced a whopping .6 volts! So, still lower than a potato, but better than we expected. And, our system (sort of) desalinates water. Can a potato do that???
Maybe it can. Really, I know nothing about potatoes.
But this is it. It's our last few days here, and it's doubtful we'll get anything more from this system. We pass it on soon to younger students than us. They'll have more time to work on it, and, with any luck, they'll be able to conquer the problems that baffled us for so long. We leave behind a paper of instructions, kindly translated by our friends Noam and Itamar, and some crummy prototypes that will likely fall apart in a week.
Godspeed, young scientists. Do us proud.
CA$H money
Okay yeah, but what else?
Our Battery!
Truth be told, this battery has not been nearly as successful as we hoped at the start. We've been plagued with a wide variety of issues, including but not limited to leaks, deformations, and contaminations. But in the true spirit of engineering, we slapped some tape on it and kept moving forward.
 |
| Meet your friendly neighborhood scientists |
From there, we made the decision to 3D print the battery. This allowed us more flexibility and precision when designing its structure, though limited the battery's size (our largest battery, which wasn't more than 10 cm long, took almost 14 hours to print). We played with a few designs in the small stages before finally settling on one that we deemed best.
Of course, things couldn't just go smoothly. To begin with, the larger battery ran out of material to print when it was most of the way done, so we had to print the rest and glue it on. Then, when filling it with water, we discovered another issue-- the battery walls, made hollow to improve printing speed, had slight leaks that allowed water to fill up and escape! It took a significant amount of thought, agar, and hot glue to fix this problem, though I believe we've finally got it.
And now here we are. Three weeks from the start, after our trials and tribulations, we find ourselves with a working battery...................... that generates (wait for it) POINT ONE (.1) VOLTS. That's right. You heard it here first, folks. Three weeks of work and a potato pulls a higher voltage.
And yet, all was not lost! Through our prototyping, we had in our possession another, smaller but still functioning battery of similarly low effectiveness. But when we STACKED them (aka ran them in series), we produced a whopping .6 volts! So, still lower than a potato, but better than we expected. And, our system (sort of) desalinates water. Can a potato do that???
 |
| Our precious masterpiece coming in at .645 Volts!!!!!!!!!!! |
Maybe it can. Really, I know nothing about potatoes.
But this is it. It's our last few days here, and it's doubtful we'll get anything more from this system. We pass it on soon to younger students than us. They'll have more time to work on it, and, with any luck, they'll be able to conquer the problems that baffled us for so long. We leave behind a paper of instructions, kindly translated by our friends Noam and Itamar, and some crummy prototypes that will likely fall apart in a week.
Godspeed, young scientists. Do us proud.
Comments
Post a Comment