Out in the world without a power outlet but you still have a burning desire to listen to some tunes? Not to worry, you can charge your iPod up with onion power!
YouTube recently had a video posting that shows a user who charged his iPod with an onion. He used a screwdriver to poke a hole in a white onion. Then he submerged the onion in 2 cups of a gatorade power drink (I assume that almost any energy drink might work as well). After 30 minutes have gone by, half of the gatorade is absorbed by the onion. The electrolytes in the gatorade and the onion itself form a chemical reaction that generates enough juice to charge an iPod for 15 to 20 minutes.
Okay, so it doesn’t have any practical uses in real life. After all, a power outlet is much easier and doesn’t come with an onion smell. But, what if you power goes out and you are desperate? This McGyver move could come in handy. Also think about the emergency applications if you are stuck out in the wilderness. Would the onion be enough to power a cell phone to call for help? Perhaps we should all carry onions and gatorade in our emergency kits.
The user could have chosen almost any device to power up, so why the iPod? My guess is because of the popularity of the iPod and its phenomena of being such a huge part of our popular culture. If the video showed the onion powering up a common AM/FM radio, would it be as popular? Most likely, the user would be dismissed as a geek and passed over. But include the iPod, and suddenly that onion battery becomes very cool, indeed. I wonder if in my father’s generation, the transistor radio kit was the really cool, awesome device to fiddle with? And, I predict that in some future generation, users will find a way to power up the latest small entertainment device with an onion.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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