Did you know that you can actually generate electricity out of lemons? Yes, they are not just for refreshing lemonades that can quench your thirst! Here’s a fun experiment about how you can make a lemon battery. Call your kids and loved ones and enjoy this battery experiment!
What you will need:
- 6 Lemons
- LED (Light Emitting Diodes) Light (preferably red)
- 6 Dimes (Copper electrodes)
- 6 Pennies (Zinc electrodes)
- Knife
- Sandpaper / Abrasive sponge / Steel wool
- Lead wires with alligator clips on each end
- Multimeter
Making a Single Lemon Cell
- Squeeze your lemon without breaking its skin. This will “activate” the juice inside the lemon which will be the main source of your electricity.
- Clean your dimes and pennies well. You can scrub them using sandpaper, an abrasive sponge or steel wool. You must make sure that you have eliminated the “oxide” coatings on them so that the flow of electricity will not be interrupted.
- Using a knife, cut a slit on the sides of your lemons. Make sure that it is not too big, just about the size of your dime and penny. Stick your dime on the left and your penny on the right. Slightly wiggle them so that the membranes of the lemon are completely broken. Remember, the penny and dime must never touch each other so keep enough space in the middle. If they touch, your lemon cell will not work.
- Using your multimeter, connect one alligator clip to the penny and the other to the dime. The movement or figures on the multimeter will indicate that there is a flow of electricity.
Making your Lemon Battery
When your lemons are connected together, it will have a capability to light one or more LED lights.
- Place your electrodes in all of your lemons. Do it exactly in the same way as you have done on your first lemon.
- Take 7 lead wires with alligator clips. Let L1 be your lemon A, L2 be your lemon B, L3 be your lemon C and so on. Using your first lead wire, connect the alligator clip to L1’s penny and the other alligator clip to L2’s dime. Another alligator clip (2nd wire) must be connected on L2’s penny and L3’s dime. Do this with all the lemons. This is called a “series” connection.
- Now, two of your lemons (the first and the last) will have extra alligator clips. Attach both to your LED light’s wire. If done correctly, it will give your LED light enough voltage to make it work. If you can’t see it clearly, try bringing it in a darker place. If it doesn’t work, check the connections once again and ensure that all the alligator clips are well-attached to your dimes and pennies.
How is this possible?
The lemon juice reacts differently to your 2 electrodes. One works as an anode which has a positive polarity, while the other works as a cathode which has a negative polarity. The charges create a current that flows through the wires towards the LED light.
For the LED light, we prefer using red because it does not require high voltage when compared with other colors such as yellow, blue, white and so on.
Great! We hope you had fun and click on the links below for other experiments. 😉
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