“You mean to say this plastic stick
Produces light? It has no wick!
It’s Triple-what? It’s Triple-A?
That makes this stick light up this way?
Well, what on earth’s a Triple A?
A bat-a-what? What did you say?
A battery? Well, where’s it lurk?
Ah! In the stick! Well, how’s it work?”
“Hm,” you say, “Okay, then, well…
You start with a voltaic cell…
Connected…if I’ve got this right…
By conductive electrolyte…
Then ions, negatively charged,
Go toward the anode, by and large,
And oxidation, so it’s said,
Is when ions’ electrons shed,
But those electrons are not gone,
At cathodes they are added on
And this, somebody has deduced
Is when cations are reduced.
Now each voltaic cell, of course,
Has an electromotive force
And did I mention the existence
Of Thévenin's
theorem and internal
resistance?
A graph of voltage, resistance, time,
Predictably shows a curving line…
Of course, these batteries of mine
Are one point five volt alkaline…”
“Ah-hem,” I said. “Er-hum. Cough cough.
This jargon’s got me nodding off.”
“Oh,” you said. “Too much to handle.
That’s all right. You take the candle.”
“Thanks,” I said, and shook your hand.
“A candle I can understand.”
But later in my tent that night…
I wondered, How are
candles bright?
