[deciple77]

I am still working on a "chem e car", and I am wanting to experiment with a voltaic pile Battery.  Does anyone have any recomendations as to the best metals to use.  I have zinc and copper, but I want to try to achive the most power for the least material and I dont know what metals will produce that.  also is salt water the best electorlite to use or is there something that will be more effective.

Thanks
-Deciple

[Corvettaholic]

Lead acid batteries have worked well in cars for a long time, and I don't think it'd be TOO hard to build a modified version for your project. Notebooks and such love to use lithium ion batteries, but I don't know how those work.

[movies]

For a small car a lead-acid battery may not be the best choice.  It would be fairly heavy and the power it produced would probably be overkill.  You need a high voltage to turn over a combustion engine, so that is why they are still used in cars.  I think that a typical car battery is about 18 volts.  I've read that these lead-acid batteries are actually quite inefficient for running the electronic stuff in your car though, so there have been ideas like having two different kinds of battery: one high voltage one to start the car, and another that runs all the electronics more efficiently.