Available Languages: English, Spanish

This page contains a simple Java applet that gives users a look inside a battery to see how it works.  It features a cross-sectional battery filled with blue spheres representing charges.  As users change the voltage, little stick figures move the blue charges from one end of the battery to the other.  A voltmeter displays the resulting battery voltage.  Students must determine which side of the battery is positive or negative from the information at hand.

This item is part of a larger collection of materials developed and maintained by the Physics Education Technology project (PhET) based on principles of physics education research.

Please note that this resource requires Flash.