CAN LEMONS PRODUCE A VOLTAGE

AIDAN SCHILLING

Lemon Batteries

Hypothesis

●If I use lemons to produce a voltage, then I can make a small MP3 player operate. This is possible because of the citric acid in the lemons having a chemical reaction between the copper and zinc terminals added to the lemons to form a battery.

List of Materials Used

● Lemons●Zinc galvanized nails●Copper straps●Wire & alligator clips●1.5 volt powered MP3 Player. ●Voltage meter

Variables

●Independent Variables• Will the MP3 player work.• How loud will the MP3 player be.

●Dependent Variables• Amount of Lemons used.

●Constants• Citric Acid• Copper• Zinc

Procedure

●Step 1 – Roll or gently squeeze the lemons to help release the juices inside it.

●Step 2– Insert the Zinc coated nail into one end of each lemon. (This becomes the negative end of your batteries)

●Step 3- Insert the copper strap into the other end of each lemon. (This becomes the positive end of your batteries)

●Step 4- Measure the voltage with the meter. Red lead to the copper strap, and black lead to the zinc coated nail. (Should measure about 0.5 volts DC).

Procedure Continued

●Step 5 – Attach a wire with an alligator clip to the copper strap on the first lemon.

●Step 6 – Attach the other end of the wire with alligator clips to the Zinc coated nail of the next lemon. (measure the DC voltage, should now be 1 volt). “Do this as many times as needed to get the proper voltage. 1.5 volts = 3 lemons”.

●Step 7- Attach the wire from the first lemon (zinc coated nail) to the negative side of the MP3 player, and the wire from the last lemon (copper strap) to the positive side of the MP3 player.

●Step 8- Measure the voltage, and make sure the MP3 Player is working.

Data Collected

●How long would one lemon produce a voltage without a load? (no MP3 player hooked up)

TimeVoltage●In the morning (12 hours later the voltage =

0.0)●How long would the system last with the load

on it. (MP3 player working). TimeVoltage

5:48 5:58 6:08 6:18 6:28 6:38 6:48 7:18 7:48 8:48

0.7 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5

5:15 5:25 5:35 5:45 5:55 6:05 6:35 7:05 8:05

1.5 1.2 1 1 1.2 1 1 1 0.9

Results

Results Continued

Conclusion

In conclusion, the hypothesis was proven to be correct because the MP3 player did work, and the more lemons we used the louder the MP3 sounded. Our one lemon no load test showed as long as there is citric acid to cause the chemical reaction with the Zinc and Copper the battery will produce some voltage. With the MP3 player installed, and the lemons set up in a series to produce 1.5 volts, the system started to show some voltage drop sooner then the one lemon no load test.