3.  Wet Cell: A Cell containing a liquid electrolyte  Electrode: An electrical conductor. Electrochemical reactions occur on the surface of an electrode.  Electrolyte: An electrically conductive substance.  Electricity: The flow of electrons.  Electric Circuit: A closed loop of conductive material that allows for the flow of electrons.

4.  The pennies release a positive charge  The nickels release a negative charge.  Your battery has a negative and a positive end just like one you might buy at a store.

5. What happened when you only had one finger on the battery? What happened when you held it between your index fingers?

6.  In a battery electrons flow from the negative terminus to the positive one. Nickel to penny.  Each series of 2 coins in your battery is it’s own wet cell, and has it’s own small charge.  The charge gets big enough to detect when we link many of these small cells together.  That alone is not enough though! Your battery does not conduct any electricity until you complete the electrical circuit.

7. When you held the battery between your two index fingers you completed the electrical circuit, allowing electrons to flow!!!

9. The Baghdad battery was discovered just outside of Baghdad in 1936. It is believed to be about 2000 years old, making it the first known battery. Some scientists believe that ancient people used this battery for plating gold onto silver objects. Others say that it may have been used for medicinal purposes.

12.  The battery would have been filled with an acidic liquid, likely vinegar or fermented grape juice.  This acidic solution would allowed the flow of electrons from the copper tube to the iron rod when the two electrodes are connected by a wire to complete the circuit.  This battery is capable of producing between 1.5-2 Volts of electricity, which is not a lot. It is believed that many of these cells were linked to produce a charge that would be large enough to be useful.

13. Coin battery picture http://activitymama.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/coin-batteries/ Positive-negative battery picture http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/uploads/battery_parallel.jpg Baghdad battery picture http://www.skepticworld.com/ancient-artifacts/images/baghdad_battery_2.jpg Baghdad battery Cross-section http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/battery1a.JPG Baghdad Battery labelled diagram http://www.watsonsupply.com/charley/batteries/images/battery.gif Info on the Baghdad Battery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery http://theunexplainedmysteries.com/egyptian-lamp.html Info on the coin battery http://activitymama.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/coin-batteries/ Connolly, Sean, Wholly Irresponsible Science, London, England, Icon Books Ltd.