(ORDO NEWS) — A viral video shows a supposed miracle material that can generate electricity, but what is actually happening?
Viral videos circulating on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok claim to show a new mineral that somehow holds a charge, with users demonstrating this by rubbing them together to create sparks, as well as connecting them with wires. which, as it turned out, feed the LEDs.
Allegedly, these stones were discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and generated considerable interest as such a stone is likely to change batteries and energy storage systems forever.
However, as always, all is not as it seems, and experts have already stated that such an electricity-producing mineral is impossible according to our current data.
Minerals within rocks do not have the necessary molecular structure to store or release charge – the best they can do is simply transfer it.
This is probably what is happening: the frame is cropped so that the edge of the rock is not visible in the video with sparks, which makes it likely that wires are connected to the mineral (which experts believe is pyrite), and the rocks conduct current between themselves.
In another video, it’s a little more cryptic how the LED lights up when plugged in.
If you look closely at the LED when not connected to the stone, there are a few frames where the light is still on, making it most likely that the current is coming from somewhere else and not from the stone.
Or perhaps there is a small charge capacitor somewhere that powers the battery when the connected wires complete the circuit.
However, everyone agrees that this is not “vibranium” and not a miracle material that somehow generates electricity from nothing.
“We don’t know of any mechanism that would support such a phenomenon,” Yaoguo Li, professor of geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, told AP.
Minerals lack the chemical composition to be able to store a charge like batteries.
Batteries do not actually store electrical energy, but energy in another form (most often chemical), which is then converted into electrical energy through chemical reactions between the anode, cathode, and electrolyte between them.
The difference is that minerals don’t release the electrons they need to store and generate charge.
For the “natural battery” to exist, as the videos claim, the mineral must somehow have an anode and a cathode that can interact.
Unfortunately, this may turn out to be more sleight of hand and a video gimmick than revolutionary new material – just another day on the internet.
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