Onion-powered iPod - Neatorama

21-year-old Owen Lewis found a way to charge his iPod -with an onion and an energy drink!

Owen, from Portsmouth, said the idea was a foolproof way of staying green as the onion decomposes and the drink bottle can be recycled once finished with.

Phil Stubbles, a physics lecturer from St Vincent College in Gosport, Hampshire, said almost all vegetables could power iPods because they contain ions which react with energy drinks to create a charge.

'The only problem is you have no control over how long it may work for ... and it can be smelly,' he added.

Has anyone here every tried this type of battery? Link -Thanks, Allison!

ill pass... wake me up when you've got a garlic powered one....mmmmmm garlic...

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meh...if it could sync as well, he'd be on to something.

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not such a fool proof way of staying green, when you think about it...it will take energy to recycle the Red Bull can, it took energy to make the Red Bull, and it takes energy to transport the Red Bull and onion to the market near this kid's house - probably more energy than he gained by doing this experiment

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I have seen this on myth busters and somewhere else and apparently it doesn't work at all. I think the conclusion was that Onions + energy drinks do create charge but nowhere near enough to charge an I-pod.

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I saw it too, doesn't work

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Yep, urban legend. http://www.itwire.com/content/view/21880/1176/

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Dreamkillers.

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Twenty one? He looks twelve!

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here you go guys. This is the section on mythbusters where they look at this exact video and test it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX6-jZpXDp4

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@ Alex

That's what I thought...I thought he was in junior high.

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Good call Justin.

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it weirds me out when stuff i read about on neatorama references places near where i live. st vincent's college is really near here and i work in a rival college. nuts.

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"paperboy05
November 24th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

Yep, urban legend."

More like outright fraud.

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He should have used currants.

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The story reminds me of the potato clock I had as a kid. Wonder what happened to that thing??? Must be 20 years gone by now, but tne coolest thing ever!

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Stupid.

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I think I'll just go ahead and plug mine into the wall... yep, that was difficult. ;)

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This actually does work. When I was in elementary school in Virginia, we had a special summer program for Gifted students. My classes in the summer after 4th grade (1985) were physics, algebra, woodshop, crafting, sign language and computer programming. In physics, we made our own electrical circuits and wires and built a clock that ran on a regular white potato for a battery.

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