illuminating science

Have you seen the incredible Water Powered Clock? Amazingly, it’s a clock that runs entirely on water! That’s right, just add water - that’s all you need! There’s also a water powered calculator and soon our cars, planes and computers will all run on water! Fantastic!

Not convinced?

I can’t really imagine how water could act as a fuel directly, and their explanation that “The internal converter extracts electrons from the fluid molecules and provides a steady stream of electricity to generate power for the calculator.” is vague to say the least.

I can only assume that it works like an ordinary battery and has something like zinc and copper electrodes that, in the presence of water, are slowly corroding and freeing electrons to power the calculator. If this is the case, the calculator would be powered by nothing more than a built in battery, using water as an electrolyte, and will eventually stop working. You wouldn’t be “extract[ing] electrons from the fluid molecules”, and to say that it is “earth friendly” and “powered by most any liquid” is misleading to say the least, and pseuodoscience at the worst - not at all up to the usual standards of Steve Spangler Science! (Which just has really cool stuff!)

In the interest of upholding my scientific dignity (and when a bit of googling didn’t immediately turn up better explanations) I’ve rattled off an email to Steve Spangler Science, and we’ll see what happens!