Did You Know That You Can Run A Clock Using Soil?

You can, and this is how it works: It all started 200 years ago when an Italian scientist named Alessandro Volta discovered that if you put two different metals in a potting cup filled with damp soil you can generate a small amount of electricity.

I put together a kit called "Make Your Own Mud Clock". First I put some soil in two pots and placed them side by side.

Then, I made sure that the soil was nice and moist enough in order for it to work.

Then I took the two strips of metal, which were copper and zinc, and placed them nicely into the damp soil.

As soon as my eyes blinked, there it was: a clock running off soil, a clock without batteries!

It was a coincidence, because in science class we are learning about electricity and how it works.

At first I was pretty scared that it might shock me and I didn't think that it would work anyway, but when it did, all I could do was laugh, laugh at a clock without batteries!