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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nuclear psub? (fruity goodness)
You know what happens when you put a brass screw in an aluminum plate, right?
There is an electrical imbalance between the metals caused by their valance
electrons. The electrons will migrate from one metal to another, causing corrosion.
The metal sourcing the electrons will be positive. It actually is quite practical
since this is basically how most batteries work.
Warren.
> On Monday, Jan 6, 2003, at 13:59 US/Central, Warrend Greenway wrote:
>
> > Were the probes dissimilar metals? I made a sea-water battery before,
> > using plates that were arranged like gills that the brine flowed
> > through. Worked great. Only problem is that the elecrton migration
> > consumes
> > the plates and in the end it is more expensive then standard batteries!
>
> Hm, I'm not sure I recall (vodka, you know).
>
> It's quite possible I thought of that, and used, like, copper wire for
> one and galvanized steel for the other -- or something like that. Does
> it matter so much *which* metals? Come to think of it, is that what
> determines which one is positive and which negative? How? I remember
> thinking that was pretty cool when I hooked up the voltmeter and was
> able to tell which side was which, anyway!
>
> Good fun, but not very practical. What did they use for electrolyte in
> the old Edison batteries, back when everybody in rural areas had
> batteries in their basement? (Now, I'm the last one...)
>
>
> David
> buchner@wcta.net
> Osage, MN, USA
> http://customer.wcta.net/buchner
>
--
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