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01: Make Premiere, Page 170.
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Subscribers—read this article now in your digital edition!Imagine this: Your car battery is dead, and you’re stuck in the woods. Your mission: Get home before you freeze to death. For the winning entries, see MakeShift 01: Analysis, Commentary, and Winners.
From the column MakeShift
The Scenario
After a relaxing night of camping in the deep woods, you return to your car to find that it will not start. The battery is dead. "Someone" left the parking lights on overnight. You are 50 miles from the nearest road and have limited food and water. You try to call for help, but your cellphone is out of power and out of range. Snowy weather is scheduled to set in by late evening. The situation is serious.
The Challenge
Create a makeshift solution to recharge the battery and start the car. Tools and materials at your disposal include the objects on the supply list below (as well as the car and its components). You have 10 hours. By the way, the car has an automatic transmission--push-starting won't work.
Supply List
- 1 Tent
- 2 Sleeping bags
- Sterno (stove and fuel)
- First-aid kit (Aspirin, adhesive bandages, hydrogen peroxide)
- 2 Pencils
- 6 Pack of cola
- 1 Dozen limes
- 2 apples
- 1 Banana
- 1 Large bag of potato chips
- 2 Liters of bottled water
- 1 Cellular phone
- 2 Road flares
- A variety of tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, Swiss Army knife
- Matches
- Jumper cables
We have winners!
Thanks for all the amazing entries! Our winners for MakeShift 01 have been selected! Read MakeShift 01: Analysis, Commentary, and Winners. Congratulations!
MAKE: Noise — Discuss this article
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Showing messages 1 through 7 of 7.
- "Someone" left their light on
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Push the car close enough to the car with the head lights on, pop off the cover for the light, unscrew the light bulb, attach the jumper cables to the battery, sharpen the both ends of each pencil and attach them to the other ends of the cables, and then touch the inside of the light sockett and drive a way. Would that work?Posted by Cizmatical on July 13, 2005 at 19:36:48 Pacific Time
- "Someone" left their light on
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You left your lights on, that's why the battery is dead.Posted by Ian12 on May 03, 2006 at 00:28:58 Pacific Time
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If you're thinking of making a battery with limes, think a minute.
Remember science class? it took three or four fat lemons just to run a pocket calculator or digital clock.
It takes about 400 amps to start even a compact car engine, more in cold weather(which this supposedly is). A lemon produces about .0001 amps, a lime is smaller and would probably produce even less.
How many limes would it take to start a car? How many do you have?Posted by Dan_Andersen on May 03, 2005 at 13:14:38 Pacific Time
- limes, sulphur, you name it...
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We realized the fruit battery scenario wouldn't get us very far, so my husband and i were thinking maybe the answer is somehow making enough acid to fix the battery. you have H202, you have sulphur, you have phosphoric acid in the sodas, there's citric acid in the limes, and there's NaCl in the chips. Oh, and K in the bananas, not that that's all that useful. So we were thinking there had to be a way to make a strong enough acid to do something with the battery... Admittedly, we've only worked on this while walking the dogs and there are many distractions, so maybe we're thinking wrong here. Any thoughts? We keep coming back to a multistep chemlab thing. I'd really love to see a solution.Posted by evakovacs on May 03, 2005 at 13:51:05 Pacific Time
- chemicals?
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we're thinking that the alternator is too deeply buried in the engine to be much use, so we were looking at the supplies and thinking maybe some chemistry set solution is the answer. i guess it depends on the car... so where is the answer, guys? we're dying here.Posted by evakovacs on May 02, 2005 at 12:54:49 Pacific Time
- Solution?
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What's the solution? It's killing me! :-)Posted by wrenhunt1 on April 26, 2005 at 05:47:17 Pacific Time
- Solution?
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I am also interested in hearing possible solutions to this problem. I believe the solution will involve the alternator and using steam (from the water & the sterno) to spin it. I've heard other suggestions about building a voltaic cell from the limes, and using that to charge the battery.
In general, the solution will involve creating one or more forms of energy, from the items in the list, and converting it to another form(s) to ultimately charge the battery.
If this scenario happened to me, I would definetely be stuck in the woods!!Posted by BarFly on April 27, 2005 at 11:38:12 Pacific Time
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