An Example Of Boring STEM Content: A Potato Lightbulb
Hello everyone, I thought today I would provide you with, my attempt at making a crappy STEM post. People message me every now and again, asking me what good content is. I don't know what the answer to that question is other than to say, good content is something that a lot of people would want to read/view/watch. Something they can't just get by a simple google search. Something with some originality, or an explanation of a complex topic not provided elsewhere...Something that you perfected yourself... Maybe you, doing an experiment yourself.. or perhaps some data that you have generated on your own... it can be a lot of things!
I can't tell you what good content is... but I can potentially show you an example of what it isn't. The following post hopefully won't be "bad," and I will do my very best to ensure that the post adheres to the (rules and guidelines) set forth by the @steemstem project. I will also offer a few decent upvotes for those who want to talk to me about this post, and tell me why it isn't so good... or argue why this is actually "quality content," and I am just an idiot. Maybe you want to yell at me for wasting your time. Or maybe in the comments you just want to shoot the shit. Talk about the weather. Post pictures of your golden retriever (my favorite dog).... that sort of thing. Up to you :)
Wait A Minute... You Can Really Power A Lightbulb With A Potato?
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." [1] However when He said this, He likely wasn't thinking about a potato. Yet, as one who is a true ponderer of the universe and all of the multitude of questions it presents us with... should He have been? Is a potato the source of renewable energy we have been searching for in modern times?! Could a simple spud be the answer to global warming!?!
But apparently one can use one to light up a light bulb! How does that even work? Well the answer to that question lies in electrochemistry. You see when people use a potato to power a light bulb what they are doing is making the potato into a small battery using two different metals as its electrodes. In the case of a potato battery, people typically use an OLD SCHOOL set of electrodes. Zinc and Copper. [2] Why these two metals? Well the answer becomes clear when we do some electro chemistry and draw out the half reactions for the oxidation/reduction of the electrodes [4]:
2H+ + 2e- == H2(g) 0.0 V
Total Reaction
Zn(s) + 2H+ ==> Zn2+ + H2(g) 0.76 V
So we see that when we place a piece of zinc (people often use a zinc nail) and a piece of copper (maybe like a penny?) into a potato, then connect them together with a wire and lets say... a lightbulb in the center; you create a circuit where electrons are able to travel from the Zinc electrode to the copper electrode. On the surface of the copper electrode some hydrogen ions are reduced by the electrons into hydrogen gas. If there just so happens to be a light bulb in the way those electrons will travel through the bulb and result in it becoming bright. My god! A potato is powering a light bulb! Except is it? I don't see any potato in the above reactions only metals and hydrogen ions!
Hey What Gives, This Potato Shit Is Fake! The Potato Isn't Doing Anything!
That's not true either young padawan. See, the potato is functioning in two ways, the first of which is the role we call a "salt bridge." Which is just a substance with a bunch of ions in it that allow for the maintenance of electric neutrality in your battery. In the case of the potato battery, we have an accumulation of Zn2+ the potato helps balance that produced ionic charge. Second, the potato also has some acids in it, which help generate the Zinc ions in the first place and keep the battery chugging along. It also serves as the source for the hydrogen ions which are reduced at the copper cathode. [4]
Thank you for reading, I hope you have learned soemthing about the cosntruction of potato btatery, and powering of a lightbubl with one.
Other Cited Materials
Images
1.) A Potato, Image is public domain
2.) A Lightbulb, No Attribution Required
3.) Potato Battery Available under CC BY-SA 3.0 license
Text Sources
1.) https://www.biblestudytools.com/genesis/1-3.html
2.) http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae516.cfm
3.) https://web.archive.org/web/20120716205546/http://electrochem.cwru.edu/encycl/art-v01-volta.htm
4.) https://www.hunker.com/12000208/how-do-potatoes-produce-electricity
The construction of the above post did take a little bit of time. It was super boring to make though, I had very little fun. I am sure it is a real thrill to read right? You all are mega interested in potato batteries and other information that you can readily google search, or watch one of the plethora of youtube videos on right? The above explanation isn't even particularly great for how the battery works, but it sure touches the bases... and it's written in my own words. I actually went back and found some citations for the information after I wrote it so it's not plagiarized!
What should be the "SteemSTEM" curator's vote strength for this post? I mean, this is quality constructed content right? I spent a bunch of time on it. It deserves a good vote right? OR does it? What do you think?
Thanks for sharing this.
It is in deed a "regular kind of post" some steemer will publish. Your question is interesting: what good content is?
You did answer some of that. I think the same as you: enjoyable content that attract people just with a title and can immerse you line by line as you read. I believe the best content is a bit subjective to define because as I can see in many websites as Medium and popular blogs, there is always a general target and also a very specific target. I have been writing more than 300,000 words in my blog right here in Steemit and what I know so far is that it matter the most the way you write. For example by using a funny or humouristic approach you can engage more people. But not always we can be funny. Education or the sensation of "being learning" it can lead you to write good content or at least gives you a good start.
In Steemit the situation is very far from reality because of the actual state of our "economy". Every people with some good support or the money can be read on trending sections and not always they have good content. I was using BidBots, mostly because I write in Spanish and we do not have much support, not as good as English content. Right now I won't use more bots but I will keep myself writing good content. Well, content which I assume is good enough to engage more people.
I think we should be educating people here in Steemit to put the content first than the reward.
Anyway. This as a long comment who looks more like a catharsis.
STEEM ON.
I agree with this!
I think your comment was exactly what this post looked to generate. Real analysis of the concept of content quality. Felt almost philosophical.
I really enjoy comments on my posts as well...
Did you know potatoes are in the deadly nightshade family?
Yes i read the whole post. Not crappy, compared to a photograph and a sentence.
https://steemit.com/rainbow/@justtryme90/boston-is-a-bit-lucky-right-now
Did you know you can graft a potato plant onto a tomato plant? As they are both in the deadly nightshade family, the plant is called a pomato or something at that point... potatoes in the ground tomatoes up top.
The photograph has more value than anything in this post. :P It's at least unique.
I totally disagree with dismissing a picture as crappy because it maybe lacked letters or other paraphernalia going on about it. Personally, I saw a carefully composed image and one of a subject that's unique. The one line sentence even gave it a lot of context. More important is that it wasn't burdened with the pretense of an author cajoling us to accept it as an outstanding scientific literature or even a Pulitzer piece. Totally my opinion.
It was intended to be what it was. A cool rainbow that I saw when walking home. The rainbow made me smile so I shared it. Does a post like that deserve the votes it got? No probably not. However it deserves more votes then the text above about the potato battery. So Id say we are on the same page of opinions.
There's value in information, especially if you were looking for something quirky...
I didn't know that you could graft them, but it doesn't surprise me.
I'd be interested to have your view on a particular fable; what the moral of it is.. What it means to you.
https://steemit.com/fiction/@primal-buddhist/the-tiger-raised-by-goats-a-retelling-in-three-parts-part-1
Why would anyone abuse innocent potatoes this much? Screw electrochemistry! These were meant to be eaten, and eaten peacefully 😡 😂
I enjoyed the constructive way of pointing out what is not good quality content in your discipline. My take away is, if it lacks a personal touch of yours, it's just a glorified shit post.
That's a pretty good way to put it. Anyone can regurgitate content from elsewhere on the internet... but what value does that really bring? Just another shit post.
Technically you could probably still eat it after the lightbulb runs... probably wouldn't taste too good... a bit like a tool box maybe.
Not gonna lie, that was hella boring to read! Point taken haha
Probably as boring as it was to write! Luckily you only invested maybe a minute into it!
It wasn't boring tho, because of the motivation behind it. It was like reading dialogue with subtext. Or literary criticism via example.
Well I'm glad :)
Point taken!
Even though the post has a nice structure that is actually pleasant to read, it lacks as you say the kind of content that can be read here.
It is like revising the experiments we did back in high school.
It needs the essence of #steemSTEM if I may say? Hahaha
Its about the interesting-ness of the post. Conceptually this could be made more interesting. Say I actually put together my own step by step set of videos/gifs of how to assemble the battery... Maybe that would help bring some originality. Perhaps I then went on to see what sort of crazy things I could power with potato batteries linked in series, that might also help. Still other creativity is needed. This basic post is what it is, a boring rehash of very very basic information which is readily available elsewhere on the internet, it brings nothing to the table, no originality, no new content, nothing we cant see done better elsewhere.
My problem then would be that I end up cluttering everything with GIFs and pictures lol
But it is true, unless we add something new to the community, it will feel that it is writing stripped-down versions of research articles (or magazines?).
We say in Spanish "añadir algo de tu cosecha". Literally means "adding something from your farm". I think you can see the metaphor :D
Stripped down versions of technical papers is good. Stripped down versions of wikipedia entries, not good.
I have no idea! I just upvoted it because I like you. :-)
I was reading and reading, waiting for the punchline, but then, suddenly had reached the end of the text already ... It's like food, where some salt/spice is missing. :)
Well some posts are for the science, and others might have some other sort of intended lesson. :)
In the case of this one... its an example for others. ;)
Yes, I guess people should learn never to forget some salt (= interesting ideas/own thoughts, hints on still open questions, witty language, ...) when cooking potatoes. :)
I liked the post. The fact that you were pissed bored writing it made it sound fun. Now in terms of information, well perhaps for those from science it doesn't give much. But for an average non science person it could be information he can read and then boast about on whatapp. Well yes they can find this information on google too, but why in the world will I be looking in Google for potato to make battery. It is more like one of those catchy click bait post but with nice revision on how stuff works. So 20/20 won't be bad for this IMHO.
And on Bible reference maybe god created stars in potatoes image, but they got smoothed a bit too much.
Hah
Why would they be looking on steem for this content? The likleyhood of that is the same as googling for it. There are hundreds of YouTube videos on this topic that are far more interesting than this post. In fact the topic is covered in many middle school/ high school science classes. Undoubdetly those teachers also do a finer job than this little blurb of rehashed garbage.
We give content like this 20/20 all the time, but IMO, this content doesn't really even deserve 5/5. :D
I'm not going to give it anything, out of principle. Because I think it sucks.
Well I will put it this way. I had forgotten about the chemistry you have put here. In all likelihood I would have not searched Google unless I need it. But the mere fact that I follow you and steemstem gets this content to my home feed and I read it. Now let's say you didn't write that Bible reference and said how boring it is, I won't have gone past first paragraph. I don't think what I enjoyed revising about batteries in your articles is its redundancy of what I could find. What a enjoyed is the fact that you made me read things I already knew are going to be redundant. Though yeah if it was a paper I would have been like what crap. But I think blogs can also be about boring shit in interesting way. Though yeah I agree that unless they are adding value to science they don't deserve high votes.
You've earned some good bonus points by referencing both the bible and star wars in a single article. However, electric pickles are where it's at. Two and a half stars.
What is happening to that pickle!?
If you send an electric current through a pickle, it glows!
TIL
I've been meaning to try this out - for "funsies" - to see if you could get enough current to light an LED (I'm weird like that!).
Btw did I miss something - "Thank you for reading, I hope you have learned soemthing about the cosntruction of potato btatery, and powering of a lightbubl with one."! :) :)
;)
I will give you 5/5, although I didn't learn anything, the post was somehow catchy! Still, I can see clearly your point...
I would probably give the post a 5/5 too, but a poster might feel snubbed with such a vote... right? I mean, I put time into this post... but only 5/5? How is this fair! I deserve more!!!
Dude, stop begging for upvotes!!
Ugh, you are just being so unfair. I see all the other bullshit that gets votes, why doesn't my great content get more.