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Reprinted by permission of Dick Berg, University of Maryland, for use on this website.

The demonstrations contained and referenced herein are listed for the purposes of cataloging and describing physics demonstrations which should be conducted only under the direction of a trained instructional support professional or physicist. These demonstrations are not presented for the purpose of being conducted by persons unconnected to this Facility and/or persons not consulting with or being supervised by the recognized instructional support professional or physicist and his/her staff. The University is responsible only for those demonstrations carried out using its own equipment using established safety and scheduling policies, and bears no responsibility for those choosing to use this source material for their own purposes. All demonstrations described and contained herein are public domain, and can also be found in reference materials in libraries, bookstores, and electronic sources.

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Place some water into the test tube. Insert the tube into the recess of the thermoelectric cooler. Turn on the voltage to about 6 volts and adjust the amperage to about 12 amps. The water should freeze in 5 to 10 minutes. A thermometer may be used in place of the test tube and water. 

The reversible thermoelectric demonstrator can be used in a variety of different ways.

Attach the motor to the demonstrator and then place one leg in hot water and one leg in cold water.  After several minutes the motor will start to turn due to the heat differential being turned into electrical current.

Detach the electric motor and plug in a voltmeter when doing the above experiment.

Detach the motor and plug in a 0 to 20 volt power supply.  Attach a digital thermometer to each leg and turn the power supply up to 6 volts.  One leg will become warmer than room temperature while one becomes cooler than room temperature.

The CPU Peltier device runs on 6 V DC and 1.5 amps. When initially switched on the thermometer should show a temperature in the mid 30 degrees F after 15 sec.