Soccer is not just the world's most popular sport. It's also a solution to the lack of home lighting in developing countries.
This story was originally covered by PRI's Living on Earth. For more, listen to the audio above.
A group of Harvard students have invented a soccer ball that charges electricity with each kick. The ball can then be used to power a light. Popular Mechanics have already called it one of the breakthrough innovations of the year. The Harvard students responsible for the invention are calling it "sOccket." Hemali Thakkar, a graduating senior at Harvard and one of the creators of the sOccket, told PRI's Living on Earth:
We saw that there was this universal love of soccer around the world and we saw this huge need for electricity and we said, 'hey, why not, why not put the two together.' And that's how sOccket came about.
The invention works by using magnetic charges. A magnet inside the ball bounces back and forth through an inductive coil, allowing an internal battery to capture current that can be used later on. It's the same technology that a shake-flashlight uses to generate and store power. Read more..
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