Eli was teaching electrochemistry today. One of the hard things to do is to do is to show the bunnies that this is something they should care about, so I told them to count how many battery operated things they were carrying around with them. Eli got to five . .
- Cell phone
- Car opener
- Laptop
- Calculator
- Laser pointer
Huh. I'm doing mesoscale metro next week, including lightning. I like that idea. I'm going to use it in the lightning section.
ReplyDeleteIs this idea copyrighted? Is there a fee? Can I just buy you a frosty beverage the next time I'm up there?
Best,
D
On my person, I manage with just a Can-O-Worms opener.
ReplyDeleteMy car door opener having perished - no, it's not the battery - my count is down to zero. I do have a semi-functional electrochemical nervous system though. Does that count?
ReplyDeleteIn the land where the car is king (mind you, where is not nowadays), tell your students to disconnect their or their parents' cars' wiring from the battery terminals and see how far their cars can travel (assuming they don't live on a hill!).
ReplyDeleteImagine that! Umpteen million cars worldwide idle and useless (except maybe as a Faraday cage) for want of a galvanic/electrolytic contraption.
Of course there are other things one could disconnect within the auto's innards that would have much the same effect on its capability for locomotion, but perhaps that's for another lecture.
And there is sometimes something useless that is put into cars to make them go ... Elmer Fudds! They, too, work electrochemically (much like their more intelligent cousins, i.e. the Bugs Bunnies and the IntelliMouses!), though somewhat defectively (unlike the Bugs ...).
Cymraeg llygoden
When Eli was young and very poor, graduate student wise, he slept with his battery to keep it warm in a very cold clime. It is a good story to tell when you are teaching the Nernst equation.
ReplyDeleteSo I used this in the lightning section, and I got to use it to reinforce scale too.
ReplyDeleteI owe you one.
Best,
D
You never finished off the heat capacity discussion at Deltoid.
ReplyDelete