MAKE pal Jeri Ellsworth has produced the first two in a series of A to Z electronics videos, sponsored by Adafruit. Here are A is for Ampere and B is for Battery (I think I watched too much Sesame Street as a kid).
Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube Channel
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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.
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Ha!
Seriously, I’m really liking this series. You’re making it fun to learn, and I’ll bet you’re having fun making them.
Keep up the good work as always. :)
Give your cat a scratch on the chin for me. ^..^/
Delightful! Thank you.
Will Adafruit sell a compilation DVD once you finish Z for impedance? If so, sign me up!
Z can’t be inductance. By the time Z rolls around we’ll already have hit Capacitor, Inductor and Resistor. I vote Z is for Zener Diode!
Sorry – meant impedance.
If you see 0.85V on a home-made electric cell, it means that one electrode is zinc (or zinc plated.) Go search on info about the chemistry behind the “lemon battery.” Since fruit juice isn’t zinc chloride or copper sulfate, apparently the battery is driven by zinc oxidation, and the copper electrode doesn’t participate much in the chemistry.
It’s not likely Zinc. that would give a voltage of around 1.1V with Copper (for example see: http://dl.clackamas.cc.or.us/ch105-09/calculat.htm )
I would guess it’s more likely a (Cu-redox = 0.34) so: 0.34 – 0.85 -> -0.51 which is somewhere between Iron (-0.41) and Chromium (-0.74) and what do you know… many stainless steels (like many washers used in plumbing) have an Iron/Chromium mix.