How to create fire using a potato

That was lame, it took 8 min. to get a flame and the dude did nothing with it. You better off walking down to 7-11 and getting a book of matches ( for free).

reply to post by Dramey


I used fine sea salt, an uncooked potato, some plastic coated copper wire, hollowed out the potato with a spoon, white toothpaste, not the gel clear kind, and followed the vid to a *T*.

Didn't work.

So, you might as well learn from my mistakes and start off by trying the gell type clear toothpaste, iodized salt and see if that helps.

Good Luck

reply to post by silo13


You should never change two things at the same time in an experiment, that way, if it does not work, you are left without knowing if one of the things changed was the right and the other a wrong and wrong nullified the right.

reply to post by ArMaP


I am so ashamed.
lol
But you're right.
I'll do better next time
Thanks

I did this experiment and burned myself.

It is all your fault.

Expect my lawyer to serve you papers within 2 business days.

Is there a place that we can vote for thread of the year. You just made the 2008 one. This is the best!!!!!!!!!

PS Why not just use your smiley?

does ats have a thing like that where we can vote for best thread of the year??


that would be great for ats

maybe not just pick just one thread

but the best out of many different topics for the year

and then maybe the top one out of those, it would be a great way to condense down all the things here on ats for a little end of the year thing




back on topic

im not scientist and really busy lately but id love to make time to try this experiment but still wondering about the copper wires from my other post lol

i know i should normally research and get my own answers but im just too busy

That was a pretty cool vid. definitely something to remember you never know could come in handy. by the way does it matter what kind of toothpaste you use?

If you had a compressor handy you might be interested in the offensive possibilities of potatoes. One could light a fire or power a bulb. Any spares could become deadly cannonballs

reply to post by Now_Then


potatoes are base not acid and besides making alkaline battery it is most excellent eating them raw when ill to re-alkaline you blood quickly!

Originally posted by LaBTop
Take an empty Coca-Cola can laying around in your favorite war-zone scenario (cans are available worldwide), polish the lens-formed aluminum bottom with some tooth-paste you also found laying around anywhere, use your thumb and the paste until the concave bottom shines and it reflect things around you. Clean with toilet paper.

Take the same toilet paper sheets, and burn a hole in it using the sunlight reflecting and concentrating in a tiny point, off the shiny half-moon shaped bottom of the Cola can.
The paper will start to burn, light a campfire with it, and maintain that during the lonely nights.

In Alaska, you could fill the Cola can-bottom with water, wait till it freezes, and you'll have a lens which will function as a fine burning glass in sunlight.


For the real geeks:
Demolish a DVD writer disk housing, find the blue laser inside, connect it to a battery and use that to burn papers. Will operate for a very long time. Years.

For the more simple mind orientated persons:
Any reading glasses in spectacles found on dead bodies, or borrowed from living ones in a disaster area, will function perfectly as burning glasses in sunlight.
Don't try this in the dark...


Another easy to find article: throw-away electric lighters.
Must be billions laying around worldwide by now. Full perhaps, but certainly empty.
Don't mind if they have no gas in them anymore, demolish them and take out the piezo-electric lighter part, and use it to make small but powerful sparks, which you use to light fire into small bundles of dried moss.
Moss can be found in any forest.
The piezo-electric part will last many years.
Don't mind the electric shocks you first will receive, you'll find ways to insulate this useful thingy.

[edit on 14/12/08 by LaBTop]

Good gnosis.

Watch out on building the DVD burner though, if you don't have a driver to regulate the voltage you risk burning out your diode

Originally posted by SvenTheBerserK
Didnt work for me....ah well better stock up on the match's.

I tried it with wire that I tested for conduction....good wire.
I used my childrens gel toothpaste.
I used normal table salt and did what the video said.
pretty much, if you want to embarass yourself in front of your kids try this while they watch on. I doesn't work!

I did test it with a multimeter though and it puts out 0.02v - 0.04v

[edit on 19-10-2009 by Phenomium]