How to make a potato clock {A-Z Play at Home}

Something a little different from us today. For the past few weeks we’ve been taking part in the weekly A-Z Play at Home blog hop. Each week we are inspired by a different letter of the alphabet – today is the letter N.

It took us a while to think of anything starting with this letter but eventually we decided upon Nails! We used nails and potatoes to show the amazing power of potatoes! Read on to find out how we did it.

To make a potato clock you will need:
2 large potatoes
2 large galvanised nails
2 lengths of copper wire
6 crocodile clips
3 insulated electrical wires
Travel clock with battery (with the battery removed!)

Did you know that potatoes are so much more than food? They can be turned into an electrochemical battery – or a battery powered by chemical energy turning into electrical energy. This is a simple experiment but great fun.

How to make a potato clock

Mark the potatoes with a + and a – and push the nails into the top of each potato.

At the other end of the potato push in the copper wire. Take the insulated wires and attach the crocodile clips to them. Attach a crocodile clip to the copper wire on your + potato and connect it to the positive terminal of your clock.

Connect another insulated wire between the nail on the – potato and the negative terminal of the clock.

Finally connect the copper wire of the – potato to the nail of the + potato using the insulated wire.

Your clock should magically come to life and start ticking as the zinc in the nails reacts with the copper wire causing electrons to flow and power the clock!

The children loved this simple experiment! Apparently you can use other vegetable too but unfortunately we didn’t have any.

See what others have been inspired to make by the letter N:

How to make a Naming Game by Teach Me Mommy

Mess Free Nature Shake Paintings from Bambini Travel