Does lemon juice work in a clock as energy? If so, how? This is
for a science fair project. I am in the 4th grade.
Evan B
- Slidell, Louisiana
Not exactly, Evan. Let's compare to a battery: Flashlight
batteries that you buy at a store have a zinc case, with a
carbon rod in the center, and they are filled with a
conductive black glop.
The electricity in a battery is a result of the
difference in the electrochemical potential between the zinc
and the carbon, combined with the fact that the conductive
black glop allows ions to travel from one electrode to the
other.
Your lemon battery has a zinc covered nail (galvanized nail)
instead of a zinc case, a copper penny instead of a carbon rod, and
lemon juice as the conductive solution instead of the black glop. The
lemon juice is not the source of the electricity, the system is --
two different metals and a conductive solution connecting them.
Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey
++++++
Hello we are crying and we want to know why do we get
less voltage from a lemon than from an apple..by using an
analog multimeter, maybe we are doing something wrong can
you help us, we are from 8th grade and we can't find an
explanation why we get so little voltage from the lemon
compared to other fruits, why did we get more from the
apple, is the apple acidic?
Rebecca B
student - Guatemala City, Guatemala
++++++
You are probably not using identical electrodes in the
lemon, Rebecca. The voltage depends mostly on the two
different metals that the electrodes are made of. It does
not depend very much on the electrolyte (the apple juice,
lemon juice, real tears, or crocodile tears). Try again
using the same electrodes in the lemon as in the apple.
It may not be there forever, but here is a great YouTube
video on lemon batteries
Ted Mooney finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey
January 28, 2008
I found that all citrus fruits will power a small light bulb. Also
if you cut two slits in to your fruit, stick a nail in one and a
copper penny in the other slit, they will act as the plus and minus
sides of a battery. The nail will be coated in zinc, and the penny
will be made of copper. This will only work if the two metals are not
touching. (Sometimes pennies aren't made with pure copper, so for
best results, use a real copper wire). The nail and penny are
scientifically entitled electrodes. The fruit juice is scientifically
identified as an electrolyte. The flow from the minus to the plus
side is the flow of electrons. The penny and nail are the conductors,
which allow electrons to flow through them.
Electricity is produced by the flow of electrons. The
electron flow is sometimes produced by chemical reactions.
Some of these reactions including this are the zinc from the
nail, the copper from the penny, and the citric acid from
the fruit.
An average lemon should produce about 0.7 volts of
electricity. An average orange will produce approximately
0.6 volts of electricity. A grapefruit will probably produce
around 0.6 to 0.7 volts. A lime on average will produce
about 0.5 volts of energy.If you want to measure the
voltage, connect a volt meter to the wires to see how many
of each fruit you will need to power the bulb's voltage.
Keep adding fruit until you get the right amount of volts,
then connect the light. Results may vary, due to the
difference of acids in different fruit, and brand of
fruit.
Allie and Kaylie
Allie A
- Alden, New York
November 22, 2008
HEY I'M MARIA I TESTED MANY MANY FRUITS.
I TESTED THEM WITH A COMPUTER. AND IT TAKES 100 LEMON TO
TURN ON A COMPUTER. I KNOW THIS EXPERIMENT IS AWESOME YOU
SHOULD DEFINITELY TRY IT. I'M A SCIENTIST I LOVE FINDING NEW
THINGS AND THIS EXPERIMENT IS ONE OF THE BEST ONES PROVEN,
BY ME OF COURSE
i have a question. What would be the hypothesis for this
project???
Maria G
- Florida
December 8, 2008
Hi, Maria. Your hypothesis should be an educated guess
about something, and it should be testable. Ideally it
should involve independent variables you can alter and
dependent variables that change in a cause & effect way
when you alter the dependent variables.
So it would be nice if your experiment was more
quantitative rather than qualitative. In other words,
answering a yes/no question like "is 100 lemon batteries
enough to run a computer" is quite impressive, but not quite
as satisfactory a science experiment as saying "I believe
that the voltage available from lemon batteries is
cumulative, additive, and directly proportional to the
number of batteries" and then graphing the number of
batteries vs. the voltage you generate. If you accept this
suggestion, just leave out "I believe that" and you have
your testable hypothesis.
Regards,
Ted Mooney finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey
November 26, 2009
I am doing a Science Fair project off of something i saw
on TV. It was a lemon stereo I am using galvanized nails,
copper, wire and radio , oh and a plug that looks kind of
like what you would use to start up your car when the
battery dies but it is a lot smaller and is not connected.I
need help! Please respond ASAP! Please I'm in the 7th grade.
Thanks for anything you can do.
KayLynn C
- Columbus, Georgia
November 2009
Hi, KayLynn. Unfortunately I did not see the TV show that
you did, and I have no idea what you're talking about.
Sorry!