Batteries

Who are the units for voltage named after?

Alessandro Volta

What is Alessandro Volta credited with inventing?

The closest thing to a modern battery

The term battery is used in military contexts for what?

A coordinated group of artillery weapons

The military contexts of a battery inspired who?

Benjamin Franklin

What did Franklin invoke the term Battery for?

Multiple Leyden Jars connected together

Early on Leyden jars were referred to as what?

Piles

Where is the world pile mostly used today?

In many non-English languages

The origin of the battery starts when?

The 1780’s

Which married couple of scientists started off the origin of the battery?

Lucia and Luigi Galvani

What did Galvanis accidentally find when dissecting a frog?

The frogs body suddenly jolted when touched with two different metals

Further experiments revealed what about Galvanis frog discovery?

It occurred with any dead animal (including human corpses)

Galvans discovery of dead animals jolting when touched by two metals led to what scientific debate?

Whether electricity represented the first scientific explanation of the mysterious life force referred to as Galvanism

What did the Galvanis theorize?

The movement of the dead frog was due to the electricity within it, which was instigated by the metal

What did Volta suggest?

The electricity came from the metals not from the frog

How did Volta prove his claim that the electricity came from the metals and not from the frog itself?

He made a small pile of silver and zinc sheets with layers of cardboard soaked in saltwater

Voltas pile of silver and zinc sheets made how many volts?

30

Who was right, Volta or Galvani?

In a sense, they both were

What was really happening with Galvani’s experiment?

The acids within the frogs skin were dissolving the metals, stealing electrons from one and giving electrons to the other making one of the metals positive and one negative

What was the relation of Giovani Aldini to the Galivanis?

He was a nephew of the Galvanis

What did Aldini do?

Expand apon the work of the Galvanis

How did Aldini continue the work of the Galvanis?

By connecting these Galvanic piles to the severed heads of various animals as well as dead criminals

Aldini was the first to show what?

That the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side and vice versa

What did Aldini prove about electroshock therapy?

It can potentially cure depression

When do we metaphorically refer to Aldini’s experiments?

When we “galvanize” someone by suddenly inspiring them to take action

What is a battery today?

A device that maintains a constant voltage by keeping two collections of positive and negative charge separate from each other

What do disposable batteries use?

Rods of zinc and carbon submerged in sulfuric acid

How does a disposable battery work?

The acid disolves the zinc, gaining positive charge and making the zinc negatively charged, the psotively charged acid polarizes the carbon rod 

What does the positive charge acid polarizing the carbon rod do?

It makes the carbon rod negative within the acid and positively charged outside of the acid

The rods oppositely charged on the parts outside of the battery are referred to as what:?

The terminals of the battery

By connecting the terminals with a wire what will happen?

A positive charge will flow to neutralize the negative charge

What makes the two terminals continuously recharge?

The acid

Disposable one use batteries are sometimes known as what?

Primary cells

What are secondary cells?

Batteries that can be recharged

Many devices today use what kind of batteries?

Lithium-ion

How do lithium ion batteries work?

By moving ions of the element lithium through a conducting chemical fluid

How is a lithium ion battery reusable?

When charging the terminal are switched, and the lithium ions move back to the other side

As the lithium ions move back and forth through the battery, what is created and how?

Heat is generated through friction

How does a lithium ion battery lose energy?

When heat is gradually transferred to the cooler surroundings 

In rare cases, if too much heat is generated what can happen to the battery?

It can catch fire

What have bigger lithium ion batteries been made for?

To power lager devices like electric cars

How are electric cars not environmentally friendly?

The environmental effects from mining the rare materials that go into making the lithium ion batteries