How To Make A Potato-Powered Light Bulb

During a power outage, or when you need to brighten a dark area of your home, you can use a potato and light bulb with a few other elements to create light. When you put copper and zinc electrodes in a potato, phosphoric acid in the potato reacts with the electrodes to generate electricity needed to light the bulb. While a potato-powered light bulb won't generate much light for a long period of time, it's enough to gently brighten a dark area while waiting for the lights to come back on.

1\. Halve the potato with the knife to expose the interior. Use the knife to cut a penny-sized slit in the middle of the potato half.

2\. Wind a piece of copper wire around each penny. Press the wire-wrapped pennies into the slits created in each of the potato halves. Leave some of the wire hanging out of the potato.

3\. Slide one nail into the end of each potato half. Wind copper wire around each nail.

4\. Attach the loose copper wire from a penny to the copper wire on the nail attached to the opposite potato. Do not connect the nail and penny wires in the same potato.

5\. Connect the two loose wires from the remaining penny and nail, to the light bulb. When the wires touch the bulb, it lights up.