Recently, on the Internet you can see a lot of amazing videos about interesting crafts, useful life hacks and scientific experiments. How applicable are they in real life? Do they work offline? Is it true that you can make a battery out of a lemon with your own hands?
As it turned out, making such a device is more than real! The very first experiments that led to the invention of the modern battery were carried out back in the 18th century! If at that distant time someone was able to detect the current using improvised means, then conducting such an experiment now will not be any particular problem.
Must try
This experience is definitely worth doing if a schoolboy is growing up at home. It is exciting and useful to introduce a child to physics if you build such a fruit battery together. It will be especially interesting for boys to participate in it. This is not boring homework and puzzles! A real science experiment! Moreover, no special devices are needed for this - just the most common items that can be found in every home are enough.
What you need to create a battery from a lemon
- Zinc bolts or screws, galvanized nails - future negative electrodes.
- Copper plates, coins - will serve as positive electrodes.
- Lemons, the juice of which will become an electrolyte. Much of this experience depends on him. Lemons should be as juicy as possible.
- Wiring for connecting elements. They must first be cleaned of insulation. Any small piece of wire will do.
- LED. He will become a current consumer, a living illustrator of the success of the experiment. You can buy it at a radio store or use a diode from any unnecessary equipment or an old tape recorder. There is no need to take more powerful devices (an incandescent lamp) - the current obtained in the experiment is simply not enough.
- Multimeter. It may not be there, but it will make the experience more visual and interesting.
Experiment
When you finish looking for the right items, you can proceed to the most intriguing. Creation of current! How to make a battery out of a lemon?
Be sure to prepare fruit. Citruses must be thoroughly kneaded by pressing with your fingers and rolling on the table with pressure until they become soft. The loss of elasticity means that they have released a large amount of juice inside. The more of it, the better. The success of the experiment depends on the amount of juice, which plays the role of an electrolytic solution.
After that, you need to fix it on a battery fromlemon electrodes. On one side, carefully insert the positive (copper coin), and on the other side, the negative (zinc bolt) electrodes. It is better to insert them about a third or half the length, leaving room for wiring.
Another important point - the electrodes should not touch each other either inside or outside the fruit. Otherwise, a short circuit will definitely occur.
Fix the wires carefully on top of the electrodes. If they have clips at the ends, this will greatly facilitate the process and simplify the task.
Connect device
After connecting all the elements, you can see how much current "gives out" one battery from a lemon. This is where a multimeter comes in handy. With the help of already accurate data that were revealed in the course of a real scientific experiment, you can, together with a young genius, calculate how many of these "tasty" elements you need to have on hand to light an LED lamp or make an old calculator work.
As a rule, in order for the LED to light up, you need to take at least five fruits. Everything will depend on the specific citrus fruits and the diode. You can, of course, do without a multimeter and just connect more and more elements in a battery chain. But it is much more interesting to put forward an assumption and prove or disprove it by calculating the required number of links.
Diversify menu
The current will definitely increase ifconnect several batteries of lemons in series. And here it is absolutely unimportant whether only one type of fruit is used. So, it will be interesting to try and see how much current an orange, potato, apple and even onion can "give out".
Experientially, several younger physicists have already found out that the strength of the current increases with increasing acidity of the juice of a fruit or vegetable. You can even record all the results in one plate, revealing the most "energetic" fruit. Many students annually conduct just such experiments as part of school optional research, posting interesting notes and reports on their observations. This is such a simple and exciting science!
Conclusions
It turns out it's easy enough to make a battery out of a lemon, an apple or a kiwi at home. A very visual and exciting experience! One of its main advantages is that it will take very little time to carry it out and no preliminary preparation is needed.
