Thank you for working on the problem of the people battery. Sage rat has directed me to the lemon battery, and that is it, as you see also. It seems it is used to teach children. //Sigh//
I’ve passed the problem by an E.E. friend of mine. He told me the problem was “trivial,” went through for me the principles he learned in 5th grade, and told me to go look up “the relevant data” (are all MIT engineers like that?).
I really did want to know how many people it would take. The reason “I” chose lithium was because of it’s place in thestandard electrode potential data page. I did this because the E.E. told me to…:o It is used in batteries therefore for stuff I have no fucking idea why, although I understood it in general when he explained it.
Why I would like the actual number in my OP is because a) people here are smarter than I am, b) I’m a bore at parties and, c) most important, I’m a Doper!
What I forgot to add in the OP was the length of the lithium “plugs” (i.e., how much total contact with the body): Call the height of the cylinder one inch.
About your question re holding the lithium in your hands–how to get an appropriate reading of the charge from the body? The epidermis has significant resistance, for one thing. Therefore, plugs. Inserting “plugs” of sharpened-tip metal is painful.
One’s mouth is too moist and saline (although I suppose that could be factored out). I have no idea of the acidic content of vaginas, and obviously that would not make the analysis gender neutral. You’re correct, I don’t know how to keep the lithium coils chemically intact. Schmear 'em with mineral oil? Suggestions?
OK, my proposal is that, assuming an answer to the above problem is found, each person would curl the exposed wire into a flat coil, and place it into his rectum, avoiding free air (the lithium would oxidize, tarnishing your bowels at the same time. Maybe that’s a good thing. But I digress.).
That’s my experimental proposal should it ever come to that.