pic: 103's electrical system

[petek]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

I was wondering how you modify the surface of the battery and the plate to reduce to a minimum the inverse square law between electrons and account for production variances in the battery. I would have thought you would lay the battery down to increase the surface area, exposing more electrons to each other for the electrostatic force to increase.

Al-
Just between you and me (you've got to promise not to let anyone in on our secret) we have a method of amplifying the surface charge on the battery that is completely within FIRST rules. We discovered this quite by accident during build season when we asked one of our freshmen, Fluffy, to wipe the fingerprints off the battery. Fluffy's picture is attached. Once she was done with it, that battery stuck to the lexan like glue!

The biggest problem we had was getting Fluffy away from Miss Daisy's pit to take care of the batteries. She has this strange thing about Daisies... She doesn't talk much, either...