The Great Pickle Experiment

First let me say, my husband is an electrical engineer and was very comfortable with this experiment.


Have you seen the new science show for kids on the Science channel? It is called Headrush and is a spin off from Mythbusters, a favorite show here. It is a great educational show for children with lot of fun science facts and experiments. LittleBit finds an experiment to do on every show.

This was an experiment involving a pickle, one of the large dill pickles, a car battery, jumper cables and two metal forks, screwdrivers, etc. The object is to light the pickle up. The theory is the sodium content in the pickle will glow when exposed to electricity. Similar to how sodium vapor street lights work.

We bought a jar of pickles, and LittleBit promptly dropped on the kitchen floor, spilling pickle juice everywhere. It smelled so bad but my kitchen floors got an extra mopping this week. We gathered the pickles, two screwdrivers with plastic handles, jumper cables and took off to the car. I was just hoping nothing blew up.



Hooked everything up and NOTHING! The pickle did nothing. LittleBit was sure it was because we did not use forks exactly like Kerri had on Headrush. I won't share hubby's thoughts. All was not lost though, Dad showed him how to make sparks with the jumper cables, yippee! LittleBit had a grand time yelling, "Busted" in Mythbuster fashion.

A failed experiment but LittleBit learned a few things about positive and negative energy and how even unsuccessful experiments are fun.