Q 01/05

Which Italian physicist built and described the first electrochemical battery, the voltaic pile, in 1800?

A) Guglielmo Marconi

B) Alessandro Volta

C) Enrico Fermi

D) Luigi Galvani

Answer · why

B) Alessandro Volta

He thought his cells were an inexhaustible source of energy and dismissed the corrosion at the electrodes as a nuisance; Faraday showed otherwise in 1...

Q 02/05

Which two metals did Volta stack, separated by brine-soaked paper, in his original pile?

A) Copper and zinc

B) Gold and nickel

C) Iron and tin

D) Silver and lead

Answer · why

A) Copper and zinc

A working pile can be made today from a nickel, a penny and salt-water paper towel, though many are needed in series to do anything useful.

Q 03/05

Who first used the word 'battery' for electrical apparatus, in 1749, borrowing a military term?

A) Benjamin Franklin

B) Michael Faraday

C) Thomas Edison

D) Humphry Davy

Answer · why

A) Benjamin Franklin

He was describing a set of linked Leyden jar capacitors that, like guns in a battery, worked together to store a bigger charge.

Q 04/05

Whose experiments on frogs' legs in the 1780s sparked the argument that led Volta to his invention?

A) Antonio Vallisneri

B) Lazzaro Spallanzani

C) Giovanni Aldini

D) Luigi Galvani

Answer · why

D) Luigi Galvani

Volta showed in 1794 that two metals and brine-soaked cloth produced current with no frog required.

Q 05/05

When a battery is supplying power, which terminal is the anode?

A) Both, alternately

B) The positive

C) Neither - the electrolyte is

D) The negative

Answer · why

D) The negative

The negative terminal is the source of electrons, which flow through the external circuit to the positive cathode.