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Eddison’s Battery Bungle

What was that? Did you hear that noise? Oh dear me I must go and see what is happening. Oh no the light isn’t working where is my torch? So that’s what caused the noise. Eddison you are naughty, you’ve knocked my torch on the floor and the batteries have come out.

It’s no good I can’t see in the dark and if I don’t put the batteries in the right way round my torch won’t work. Do you think you could help me? My book of wisdom will help you work out what to do.

Cells (batteries) are used to store electricity. Inside a battery are chemicals which create positive and negative charges. These charges collect at opposite ends of the battery. The end that collects the positive charge is marked with a + sign. The end that collects the negative charge is marked with a – sign. The power of the cell is measured in Volts.

Can you see how many volts these cells produce? Because cells have a positive, end and a negative end you have to be careful to put them in the right way round. If you don’t put them in the right way round the torch won’t work. When you look closely at a torch there is often a spring (with a small – sign, and a button, with a + sign. Make sure you match up the – sign with the – end of the cell and the + sign with the + end of the cell.

Mend The Torch

Help Eddison to put the batteries back into the torch the right way round. First you need to turn the batteries the right way round then drag them onto the torch.

You’ll need the Flash plug-in to view the above activity. Download the Flash plug in here.

That’s better, thank you very much. Right lets have a look and see why the lights are off.

Next page: Mains electricity

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