Categories: Sci/Tech

Boiled Potatoes Produce Enough Power To Light A Room for 40 Days

Got no power? Here's a potato.

You’ll never go wrong with potatoes. Mashed, boiled, fried, baked, roasted – you name it, it’s delicious. And aside from almost always being a treat to the palate, it is also packed with vitamins B6, C, and D and with minerals including potassium, zinc, iron, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. As if those weren’t enough, just know that potatoes are also rich in protein, fiber, and antioxidants.

If you’re still not a fan of potatoes even after reading the nutritional benefits that it offers, then hopefully, this next bit will bring a change of heart. You see, aside from filling our tummies, a potato can also be transformed into a powerful battery. Isn’t that a-“peel”-ing?

Yes, you read that right. Potato. Battery. Not messing with you there!

Professor Haim Rabinowitch, a member of the science and agriculture faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, figured out a way to turn a potato into an effective power source. However, it must be emphasized that a potato alone cannot do the trick. Two metal rods must be attached to the potato for it to work, as doing so will induce a chemical reaction that will produce chemical energy.

The team also discovered that if the potato is boiled for eight minutes, the energy that it produces multiplies tenfold. In addition, cost analysis reveals that using boiled potatoes as a source of electricity is about six times more inexpensive than a typical kerosene lamp and about 50 times cheaper than a standard 1.5 volt AA battery.

Now, what we need are the following: potatoes; two pieces of metal rods, one positively charged such as copper, and one negatively charged, such as zinc; and alligator clips. Using these items, we can create a potato battery that can supply a room with LED-powered lighting enough power to last for at least 40 days. Imagine that! And, imagine how this can help those poor communities that are still without electricity!