This page describes the materials and procedure for conducting the experiment to test the validity of the hypothesis.

Materials for the experiment

• Voltaic pile
• Two buckets
• 8 litres of water
• 300 gms of baking soda
• Citric acid powder
• Water to mix with the citric acid powder
• Acetic acid
• Hydrochloric acid (a weak form of hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid)) was used
• Multimeter
• Two copper wire alligator clips
• Gloves for handling acids
• Eye protection for handling acids

Voltaic Pile Construction

Courtesy of E. Stanton

Procedure for the experiment

1. Wear protective gloves and eyewear for this procedure.
2. Fill both buckets with one gallon of water each.
3. Mix 300 gms baking soda into one bucket filled with 4 litres of water for neutralizing the acids between trials. The second bucket filled with the remaining four litres of water is for rinsing the baking soda solution off of the plates.
4. Mix 240 gms of citric acid powder in 400 ml of water.
5. Soak the cosmetics pads in citric acid.
6. Assemble the voltaic pile, ensuring there is no excess electrolyte solution on the pads.
7. Attach one set of alligator clips between the zinc square and the voltmeter, and the other set of alligator clips from the voltmeter to the copper square.
8. Measure the voltage for the trial.
9. Take the wire’s alligator clips off the voltmeter and the voltaic pile.
10. Dissemble the voltaic pile and remove the cosmetics pads.
11. Record the voltage measured in the trial.
12. Place the copper and zinc squares into a bucket of baking soda water to clean off the electrolyte.
13. After a minute, place the zinc and copper squares into a bucket of water to clean off the baking soda for one minute.
14. Discard the cosmetics pads and take out new pads.
15. Repeat steps 5-14 three times.
16. Repeat steps 5-14 three times using acetic acid instead of citric acid.
17. Repeat steps 5-14 three times using hydrochloric acid instead of acetic acid.

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