29 thoughts on “Only problem is you are making a battery…”
In all honesty…..this generation, x,y,z millennial whatever, needs to experience their stupidity. I’m tired of explaining things to them and them not heeding the advice.
Nailed it.
Nope screwed it.
Sorry, bu what am I looking at here? I don’t get it
Washers cost, what, 5 cents each, while pennies are 1 cent monetary value and 0.8 cent actual value. So pop a hole in the penny and use it as a washer.
I’ve done that. When you want a soft washer so the washer wears out and not the hole.
The problem, of course, is dissimilar metals create a low-power battery, basically makes it galvanically active. Something’s going to oxidize.
Ah…ok, I see.
looks like you drill holes in some pennies there.
but what are you doing with it ?
Two dissimilar metals in contact will create an electric current between them which will lead to corrosion and wasting in the metals.
Thank you Thomas!
It says “a single washer costs .8 cents”–that’s still less than a penny, so he’s losing money.
You beat me to it. He’s paying an extra 0.2 cents per washer. 100 washers would cost 80 cents, but 100 pennies is a buck. Not much, but in huge quantities….
I think that the implication is that the value of the metal, used to make the penny, is less than that of the penny itself. As an illustration of the devaluation of our currency.
A quick search found this :
By: Stuart Herring
I’ll use data from Penny (United States coin) – Wikipedia
, where the mass and composition are given; from Copper Prices; and from U.S. Zinc, for price-per-pound info.
1 penny has a mass of 2.5 g; it is 97.5% Zn (2.4375 g) and 2.5% Cu (0.0625 g).
The monthly average spot price for copper (as of mid-July 2020) is $2.91/lb, hence $0.006415/g; that of zinc is $0.9480/lb, hence $0.00209/g.
With the given percentages, the metals in a penny are worth $0.0004009 + $0.005094 = $0.0054949. With a bit of rounding, this is $0.0055, or 0.55 cents.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
What’s the labor cost of drilling a hole?
These would make cool escutcheons for steampunk hardware or something else, but you’d have to charge for your time.
CederQ – should be >> you’re <> your <<
– I'm something of a grammar geek. Can't help myself.
– these sorts of misuses makes my skin crawl
It’s a lost cause. same with there, there, and they’re.
We who didn’t sleep through English classes have to suffer for it.
It isn’t healthy to annoy one of the hosts… You are correct and I corrected it, thank you. You would be surprised at all the editing I do on comments on this and the other blog quietly, quietly being the operative word.
@Tenn Budd … I know, and I try to contain myself, but every once in a while the Walls of Jericho come down.
@CederQ – I see what you did with the post’s title !!
Remove the temptation, remove the nazi…
Lighten up Francis
Four comments, and no one corrected your grammar.
I’m surprised.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Of course, the moment I post that, IJD and Budd jumped all over it.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Must be lag….
Now there are a pile of comments, posted before mine, that just showed up.
Weird.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
So, you Leigh, are jumping on beat Cederq on a slight mishap of grammar? Hmm, I need to post more Ford derisive memes…
No, I saw it quite some time before I posted. I just figured a grammar Nazi would have pounced on it sooner. Guess they were slacking.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
To the clueless (or mostly just uneducated) – don’t expect too many hang around here, but here goes.
Zinc plated screw, copper washer are dissimilar metals, add a bit of dirt, some moisture and you have a battery happily eating away at the steel screw that was once zinc plated. Whatever it is holding, won’t be held in a while.
Maybe with stainless steel and copper it would not be so bad, but why not just do it right the first time, use compatible metals that do not have different electron numbers to create a current?
Oh, I get it, the stainless washer costs 1 penny more, never mind, the end user will have to fix it when it fails out of warranty.
All correct, except……..pennies are no longer copper. Who knows what combination of pot metals they’re composed of nowadays. It would be interesting to know what the dielectric constant is for our various abominations of coinage.
As my aircraft mechanic once put it: “All metal was once dirt, and it’s doing its chemical best to get back there!”
Lotta zinc in the penny pot metal. Scratch the copper wash off the penny and you have a soft zinc washer/sacrificial anode.
But if you don’t have a washer and do have a penny-or a nickel…I’ve said for some time that modern coinage has the intrinsic value of a defective flat washer. Some other nations make their coins from steel.
Damn, an English and chemistry lesson all in one read. Love this blog as it makes me smart. Kinda like when I smash my finger with a hammer smart. I’ll just stick with washers I’ve collected over the years. When Dad passed, he blessed me with his collection, which I hope to will to one of my sons-in-laws. If I see an unclaimed washer somewhere, it joins the collection (never stolen, scruples have I).
In all honesty…..this generation, x,y,z millennial whatever, needs to experience their stupidity. I’m tired of explaining things to them and them not heeding the advice.
Nailed it.
Nope screwed it.
Sorry, bu what am I looking at here? I don’t get it
Washers cost, what, 5 cents each, while pennies are 1 cent monetary value and 0.8 cent actual value. So pop a hole in the penny and use it as a washer.
I’ve done that. When you want a soft washer so the washer wears out and not the hole.
The problem, of course, is dissimilar metals create a low-power battery, basically makes it galvanically active. Something’s going to oxidize.
Ah…ok, I see.
looks like you drill holes in some pennies there.
but what are you doing with it ?
Two dissimilar metals in contact will create an electric current between them which will lead to corrosion and wasting in the metals.
Thank you Thomas!
It says “a single washer costs .8 cents”–that’s still less than a penny, so he’s losing money.
You beat me to it. He’s paying an extra 0.2 cents per washer. 100 washers would cost 80 cents, but 100 pennies is a buck. Not much, but in huge quantities….
I think that the implication is that the value of the metal, used to make the penny, is less than that of the penny itself. As an illustration of the devaluation of our currency.
A quick search found this :
By: Stuart Herring
I’ll use data from Penny (United States coin) – Wikipedia
, where the mass and composition are given; from Copper Prices; and from U.S. Zinc, for price-per-pound info.
1 penny has a mass of 2.5 g; it is 97.5% Zn (2.4375 g) and 2.5% Cu (0.0625 g).
The monthly average spot price for copper (as of mid-July 2020) is $2.91/lb, hence $0.006415/g; that of zinc is $0.9480/lb, hence $0.00209/g.
With the given percentages, the metals in a penny are worth $0.0004009 + $0.005094 = $0.0054949. With a bit of rounding, this is $0.0055, or 0.55 cents.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
What’s the labor cost of drilling a hole?
These would make cool escutcheons for steampunk hardware or something else, but you’d have to charge for your time.
CederQ – should be >> you’re <> your <<
– I'm something of a grammar geek. Can't help myself.
– these sorts of misuses makes my skin crawl
It’s a lost cause. same with there, there, and they’re.
We who didn’t sleep through English classes have to suffer for it.
It isn’t healthy to annoy one of the hosts… You are correct and I corrected it, thank you. You would be surprised at all the editing I do on comments on this and the other blog quietly, quietly being the operative word.
@Tenn Budd … I know, and I try to contain myself, but every once in a while the Walls of Jericho come down.
@CederQ – I see what you did with the post’s title !!
Remove the temptation, remove the nazi…
Lighten up Francis
Four comments, and no one corrected your grammar.
I’m surprised.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Of course, the moment I post that, IJD and Budd jumped all over it.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Must be lag….
Now there are a pile of comments, posted before mine, that just showed up.
Weird.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
So, you Leigh, are jumping on beat Cederq on a slight mishap of grammar? Hmm, I need to post more Ford derisive memes…
No, I saw it quite some time before I posted. I just figured a grammar Nazi would have pounced on it sooner. Guess they were slacking.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
To the clueless (or mostly just uneducated) – don’t expect too many hang around here, but here goes.
Zinc plated screw, copper washer are dissimilar metals, add a bit of dirt, some moisture and you have a battery happily eating away at the steel screw that was once zinc plated. Whatever it is holding, won’t be held in a while.
Maybe with stainless steel and copper it would not be so bad, but why not just do it right the first time, use compatible metals that do not have different electron numbers to create a current?
Oh, I get it, the stainless washer costs 1 penny more, never mind, the end user will have to fix it when it fails out of warranty.
Periodic table –
Zinc 30 electrons
Copper 29 electrons
All correct, except……..pennies are no longer copper. Who knows what combination of pot metals they’re composed of nowadays. It would be interesting to know what the dielectric constant is for our various abominations of coinage.
As my aircraft mechanic once put it: “All metal was once dirt, and it’s doing its chemical best to get back there!”
Lotta zinc in the penny pot metal. Scratch the copper wash off the penny and you have a soft zinc washer/sacrificial anode.
But if you don’t have a washer and do have a penny-or a nickel…I’ve said for some time that modern coinage has the intrinsic value of a defective flat washer. Some other nations make their coins from steel.
Damn, an English and chemistry lesson all in one read. Love this blog as it makes me smart. Kinda like when I smash my finger with a hammer smart. I’ll just stick with washers I’ve collected over the years. When Dad passed, he blessed me with his collection, which I hope to will to one of my sons-in-laws. If I see an unclaimed washer somewhere, it joins the collection (never stolen, scruples have I).