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Science project idea on how the storage battery is used.
Storage Battery Science Project Idea
How the "storage battery" is used. Storage batteries have come into common use. Most of you will know of some instances of their use. Find out as many examples as you can of the use of storage batteries. The following experiment will help you to understand a storage battery.
Storage Battery Experiment Suspend two pieces of lead in a very dilute (1-40) solution of sulphuric acid in a battery jar. Connect the lead plates with a battery of three or more dry cells. Do you notice signs of any activity in the battery jar? After allowing current to pass through the lead plates for about five minutes, disconnect the dry cells. Connect the wires attached to the lead plates to an electric bell. Result?
From the facts that one of the plates became brown and gas is given off from the plates during the process of charging, what kind of a change do you think is taking place? The electric current in passing through the lead plates and the sulphuric acid causes changes somewhat like the ones we observed in electroplating. The effect is to make these plates unlike each other in a way similar to that in which the zinc plate is unlike the copper plate in the simple voltaic cell. When the two changed lead plates are connected with an electric bell, the bell rings, showing that the chemical energy which has been derived from electrical energy has now been changed back again into electrical energy. About 75 per cent of the electrical energy passed into a storage cell may be recovered again as electrical energy. Heat developed during the process of charging and discharging the cell accounts for the loss. Lighter storage cells have nickel and iron plates, but the principle of their action is the same. Electrical energy is changed into chemical energy which is changed in turn again into electrical energy when the cell is discharged. Commercial storage cells are made of a large number of plates. All the negative plates are connected with one wire and all the positive plates with another wire. While the voltage remains the same, with the increased surface of plates the amperage is increased.
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