| Author | Message | ||
     Jeff S |
I am making the "hydrogen bomb" for a school project. It is mentioned that I should get carbon rods from 'C' batteries. Is this safe? Are there any acids, etc.? | ||
| Jeff S |
Oh, one other question. Is there a way to accelerate the electrolosis? If so, would the solution be to raise the voltage or the current? Could I use a wall outlet? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
It is relatively safe to open batteries. Wash your hands afterwards, don't eat what you find in there. The amount of gas released is determined by the number of electrons passing through the water. Electrons per second is current. So you want to increase the current to increase the speed at which the gas is produced. Ohm's Law says that current is voltage divided by resistance. To increase the current, you can increase the voltage, or reduce the resistance, or both. To reduce the resistance, you make the water more conductive, by adding a little acid, such as vinegar. Don't use a wall outlet. Don't ever use a wall outlet when playing around with water. Stick with batteries. You can get very high voltages by sticking 9 volt batteries together in a long chain. A dozen 9 volt batteries will give you 9 times 12 volts (108 volts). That is much more than you will need for electrolysis. Two or three 9 volt batteries should do fine, especially after you put a little vinegar in the water. | ||
| Jeff S |
Okay, thanks for the info! | ||
| Jeff S. |
Me again! I talked to my teacher about the project. Although I was having a difficult time making out what he was saying, I believe he said something about how putting an acid and a base (lemon juice & baking soda) in the water would speed up the process. Would this really help? Thnx! | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
An acid or a base, or a salt would all add charge carriers, and reduce the resistance. Adding both an acid and a base would make a salt. The main acid in lemon juice is citric acid. When that combines with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) you get bubbles of carbon dioxide, and sodium citrate (which is a salt). Some of the carbon dioxide remains in solution (doesn't bubble out). Carbon dioxide in water makes carbonic acid, which will decrease the resistance. The problem with having bubbles of carbon dioxide in the project is that they might be confused with bubbles of hydrogen or oxygen, and it will be difficult to collect the hydrogen and oxygen as pure gasses, since there will be carbon dioxide mixed with both of them. The carbon dioxide will also interfere with combustion if you plan on making the hydrogen and oxygen react to form water. | ||
| Jeff S. |
Allright. Thanks for the quick responses! | ||
| Anonymous Posted From: 4.247.65.88 |
I know exactly what you are doing. You are not making a bomb and if you are you should be put in prison. You are making a hydrogen electrolysis reactor to produce gas. And if I am wrong you should be as the price of gas is close to $3.00 per gal.and going much higher. Wouldn't you like to see all your family and friends pump water into their cars from the garden hose and not pump gas? Go to Hobby Lobby and get carbon rods in the model plane department, do not buy the solid rods as your electric connection could fail, buy the rods with a hole all the way through so you may take a stainless steel bolt of proper dia. and us as an electric connection. This algo gives you more surface area for the hydrogen gas production. How do I know? I'm doing it. J in FL | ||
| Marat Orazov (Marat_o) Intermediate Member Username: Marat_o Post Number: 31 Registered: 6-2005 |
 Just because one is making a bomb doesn't mean they should be imprisoned, if you think about it a match is a bomb, a lighter is a bomb, should everyone using those bombs be jailed?, the engine of your car is a bomb consisting of multiple bombs, I take it that you have one from the fact that you refer to gasoline prices However much we would like to see our friends and family pump water into cars, which at this day and age, would damage a lot of cars, where would the energy to convert the water into hydrogen and oxygen come from? what are you going to do with the chlorine gas that results from the electrolysis? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 637 Registered: 12-2004 |
I don't think anyone is considering pumping water into the car. Water is already burned hydrogen, and there is no energy left to extract. People are talking about putting hydrogen in their cars. The hydrogen is extracted from water by putting electrical energy into the water. That energy is not free. Today it comes from the same source that makes the gasoline expensive. When gasoline is twice as expensive as it is today, we will make hydrogen from solar or wind or hydroelectric or nuclear power, and it will still be more expensive than today's gasoline, just not fully twice as expensive. Gasoline is still cheaper now than it was at the end of the Carter administration, in constant dollars. It will take more than $3.00 per gallon to make people actually switch to cleaner (more expensive) energy sources. So, to keep Florida from going underwater as the oceans warm and expand due to carbon dioxide greenhouse warming, let's all hope gas goes to $6.00 a gallon, so we stop burning carbon and hydrocarbons as fuel. ;-) | ||
| Marat Orazov (Marat_o) Intermediate Member Username: Marat_o Post Number: 32 Registered: 6-2005 |
Gas at that price would beat even .5 litre bottled water! Oh and the water instead of hydrogen was not my idea it belongs to"J in FL" | ||
| Arthur Yip (Peregrineay) Junior Member Username: Peregrineay Post Number: 7 Registered: 4-2005 |
The outlook is in electric cars, with fuel cells of high efficiency powering them. When production and fuel transportation and storage problems are solved in the future, the fuel cell will replace the inefficient heat-wasting internal combustion engine. | ||
| jOSH (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted From: 72.235.129.42 |
WILL THAT MAKE OTHER GASES |
