A BATTERY ON CHARGE

DEFINITION OF BATTERY:

A battery is a device that stores chemical energy and converts it to electricity.

Batteries are made up of different components. Let's start with the separator; this prevents short circuits (which are caused by electrical flow straying outside its intended circuit). What better separator than a solid brick wall?

The two "chambers" (called electrodes in Chemistry) a battery possesses are called anode and cathode. During usage, electrons move from the anode (where they are made) to the cathode. The cathode contains all the electrons and ions when the battery is dead; the anode is where these ions and electrons intercalate to on charging. It's almost like a borrowing game between the electrodes.

On the right of the brick wall, there's the cathode; you can identify it by looking at the lily pads. They are positioned so that they almost form a C. On the left of the brick wall, there's the anode; the lily pads are placed so that the slit on them are downwards, making the outer lines of the letter A.

[I need to explain a side note on the Chemistry of batteries before moving on to the next point. Since batteries are rechargeable (the one in the drawing definitely is), the anode and cathode names do switch depending on whether the battery is discharging or charging. By definition, the anode is always the negatively charged electrode (has all the electrons) and the cathode is always the positively charged electrode (which is where the electrons are attracted to). So when the battery is dead, all the electrons are in the cathode, but it wouldn't be called cathode anymore because it's no longer positive; it switches its name to 'anode' and so does the previous anode, which becomes the new 'cathode'.

This piece of information is not included in the drawing; it would have been too complex to express on paper (it could have been possible if it was a lenticular drawing though, but that require technical devices that I have zero probability of acquiring).]

To strengthen this very tiny translation of anode and cathode on paper, I decided to show a charging battery. To explain this, please follow me on a small tangent first. In terms of human beings, charging means sleeping to rest the body. When do people sleep usually? At night! The scenery of the pond is dark and there's a moon reflected in the water for this very reason. On top, I also wrote a very specific time; it's a relatively early stage of sleep. To better explain it, imagine waking up at 01:56 to go to work/school/etc.; you wouldn't have the energy to do that because your body wouldn't be fully charged. Applying this same logic to the battery in the drawing, it has just been plugged in to charge.

The lilies are the current collectors (the means that collect and deliver electrons, which in this piece are represented by the frogs); during charging, they move electrons from the cathode to the anode. The anode doesn't have many frogs yet as the charging has barely begun. For this same reason, the anode side is almost as if it's coming to life; the lily pads are half underwater still.

This concept was somewhat easy to start off with because some of it was written in history itself. In the 1790s, two Italian scientists, Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta helped to start unravelling the mystery of batteries. As Galvano was studying a frog's leg, he brushed a metal instrument against one of its nerves, making the leg muscle twitch. He explained it as 'Animal Electricity': a type of electricity stored in the very stuff that makes up life (very romantic view, shall I add). However, Volta came along and proved that it was because of the metal itself. In fact, Volta's discovery has been honoured to this day by naming the standard unit of electrode potential the 'Volt'!

Other than this, there are two more reasons why I thanked the stars that frogs would be the main characters of this piece. Most frogs are active at night; that ties up very nicely with the logic I brought up about charging.

Also, there's another fundamental part that makes up a battery: the electrolyte. This is necessary to wet the separator (the brick wall) and the electrodes (anode+cathode) to ensure a flow of ions between them. Fortunately, lily pads grown in water and frogs positively like to be in water.

Lastly, on a more artistic note, I really loved trying out different perspectives in the same drawing; although it's a plan view of a pond, there are some frogs in profile too. I was sceptical of its success (I thought it would look too jarring to the eye), but I'm glad I took a leap.

Key:

• Frogs = electrons

• Lily pads = metal ions

• Water= Electrolyte

• Brick wall = Separator

• Left-side of pond = Anode

• Right-side of pond = Cathode