14 A Volt and a Jolt

CHAPTER FOURTEEN A Volt and a Jolt Volt (noun). A unit used when measuring the amount of electricity in a battery. Something small like a remote control needs a few volts of electricity, but a remote-controlled car needs a LOT more. IT WAS THREE DAYS before STEM Night. On Tuesday afternoon, we were in the science lab, getting time for our projects with Ms. Daly. Like always, we had to work at a table with our assigned groups. "Okay, everyone, my Rube Goldberg machine is going to turn on that calculator." I pointed to the calculator that Ms. Daly had given me. "I'm ready to watch this," said Memito. "Me too," said Jeremy. "Me three," said Phoenix. The first thing I did was to power my very low- volt, handheld fan with a battery made from six lemons. This time I had remembered to roll the fresh lemons to soften up the insides before making my batteries. And to test them using the voltmeter.

Now came the moment to see if my concept for the machine would work. I used blocks to prop up an upside-down lunch tray to the exact height of my little fan. Then I placed a small round pebble at the beginning of a Hot Wheels track on top of the tray. Then at the end of the track, I stacked six dominoes in a row. There was just enough space to carefully balance Birdie's strawberry between the last domino and the very edge of the tray. Below the tray, I set a glass full of water. "Okay, ready?" I cried. "One, two, three, go!" After I turned on the fan, it powered the pebble, which rolled down the track to knock into the dominoes, which pushed the strawberry off the lunch tray into the cup of water with a satisfying plop. The water overflowed, wetting the piece of tissue paper underneath it. "Cool!" cried Phoenix. "Yeah," admitted Jeremy. "That's like something you'd see on YouTube." "But you didn't get the calculator to turn on." Memito shook his head. "Oh, man, that's not good." "It's fine!" I said. "I haven't finished building my machine." I pointed to my bag. "I've got more tissue paper in here and a little plastic arm. All I have to do is strap down the arm using tightly pulled tissue paper. When the cup overflows, the

tissue paper will get all soggy, releasing the arm, which will spring up to hit the ON button on the calculator. Plus, I'm also going to power up the calculator with these." I pulled out two more lemons. "Tada!" "Mmmm, those smell good," sniffed Phoenix. "Maybe I could make fruit leather out of them," said Memito. "No," I said. "Like I told you. I need them to make another battery." "It's time for a milk break, everyone." Jeremy held up a half quart each of chocolate and strawberry milk. On his tray were half quarts of fat- free and low-fat milk. "Oh, strawberry is my favorite. I'll take that," said Memito, grabbing the carton of strawberry milk. Jeremy yanked it away from Memito. "Dude, that's part of my experiment. To see what happens when you pour Red Bull in the milk." He popped open a can of Red Bull. "The acid in this stuff will curdle milk. At least that's what I'm hoping. And I want to see which kind of milk curdles the most." Phoenix made a face. "Think what it will do to your stomach." Jeremy poured different kinds of milk in four empty flasks. Then he topped them off with Red

Bull. The strawberry milk immediately separated. On the top it was foaming. With the chocolate milk you couldn't see the separation as much but you could tell something was going on. After a few more minutes, the low-fat milk and fat-free milk got clumpy. Meanwhile, Memito was taking photos. Click. Click. Click. "Okay, you're going to want to get this!" Jeremy dumped the low-fat milk and the fat-free milk into the sink. There were clumps of curdled milk that looked like cottage cheese. "Say cheese!" cried Jeremy. Memito held his nose. "Wow, that reeks." "Keep taking photos," said Jeremy. The strawberry milk and the chocolate milk barely came out of the flask. "It's not budging." Finally, giant clumps plopped out.

Memito put down the camera. "Take another photo!" urged Jeremy. "You can't miss this." "Okay, I won't breathe," joked Memito, who took a few more shots. "That was pretty stinky," I admitted. "But I've got to go. Not because of the stink—well, a little bit because of it." "You don't know what you're missing," said Jeremy. "I'm going to get my poster board," I said. "To add to the observations section." I hurried to the back of the lab. But when I went to look at my poster board, I couldn't believe what was scribbled right under my drawing of my Rube Goldberg machine.