- A lemon • Strips of copper and zinc.
- A voltmeter • Leads with crocodile clips.
- A calculator with LCD display
- Copper and zinc electrodes • Stanley knife.
Risk assessment:
Safety:
Safety is an important aspect in every experiment, even if the experiment seems to be very harmless. That is why we consider this, no matter what.
These are some of the safety aspects that maybe considered during the experiments:
- First, clear the useless items and equipments away from the working area or table.
- Be careful with the electrical equipments.
- Be careful when using the Stanley knife.
- I have to be careful when connecting the wire to the voltmeter.
METHOD OR PROCEDURE:
- Clear away all the useless equipments from the working area.
- Collect all the equipments needed for the experiments that I will be doing,
- Firstly, I have to roll the lemon the table to break up some juice inside.
- Using a Stanley knife careful make holes in the lemon to insert the copper and zinc plates into it.
- Insert metal strips into the lemon as shown making sure that the strips do not touch each other.
- Using the voltmeter, measure the voltage produced between the two strips. Record the voltage or observation.
- Now add two other plates into the lemon.
- Measure the voltage produce between the two outer strips.
- Now connect the terminals of the battery to calculator to show the volts
- Then record the observation or the voltage.
Diagram:
This is showing how the metal strips were inserted into the lemon.
The diagram shows the first two strips were inserted into the lemon and then the terminal at the end
The second diagram shows the other two strips when they were added into the lemon.
Results:
At first when there was only one pair of the metal strips inserted into the lemon, the voltmeter was reading 0.90volts.
Then I inserted the other two pair of the metal to double the voltage. The volt was 1.15volts. The voltage was not actually doubled but it was more than the first one.
However, I thought that the voltage was not doubled because the other two metal strips were not in the same line. So I decided to do the experiment again. There was some improvement but still, the voltage was not doubled. This time it was 1.24volts on the voltmeter.
II. THE DANIELL’S CELL:
APPARATUS OR MATERIALS NEEDED:
- A copper container
- Zinc rod
- A porous vase copper sulphate
- Voltmeter
Method:
- Connect the terminals into the voltmeter.
- Record the voltage or observations.
- Connect the terminal into the calculator and record the observation.
- Compare its performance to the one with the lemon.
Diagram:
Results:
The voltmeter is showing is 1.07volts.
The copper sulphate is on the outside measuring the positive electrons of the experiment.
The zinc sulphate is the solution in the inside measuring the negative electrons of the experiment.
Research:
Electricity:
Electricity is one type of energy. It is also known as power. It is found in different forms all around us. The power behind electricity comes from one of the smallest things known to science -- electrons. Electrons are tiny particles within atoms that have a minute electric charge. If a million electrons were lined up, they would barely reach across the head of a pin. When electric current flows through a wire, these tiny particles actually surge through the metal of the wire -- just like water flows through a pipe. It takes an unbelievably large number of electrons flowing through a wire to light a bulb. The flow of electrons is called an electrical current and is measured in Amperes --- when 6 million electrons flow through an electrical circuit in one second, the current is approximately 1 Ampere
Making electricity:
Electricity is made at electric power station. It can also be generated by machines called generators converting other form of energy like coal, falling water wind gas to electrical energy. Then conductors are used to carry the electricity all around.
This energy may exist in various forms: mechanical motion, light, heat, or a chemical reaction. Chemical energy is the source of power in batteries. The simplest batteries consist of two different metals. That works for the electrical current in the lemon. The electrical current comes from the chemical reaction between the acid in the lemon and zinc. Positively charged hydrogen in the acid oxides the zinc, causing electrons to flow from zinc to the acid. Some of hydrogen in the acid is reduced to hydrogen gas. The copper merely completes the circuit. Atoms from one metal travel through the acid to the other metal, releasing electrons. Eventually, when all the mobile atoms have been transferred, no additional electrons may be released, and the battery is dead.
Engineers make measurements when they are working with electricity. They measure voltage, current, resistance and power.
The lemon battery produced more current than the Daniel’s battery
The firs pair strips that were inserted into the lemon produced 0.90 volts.
When I doubled the strips, the voltage was 1.15 volts.
To find out the increase, I have to take the voltage produced by two pair of strips subtract the voltage produced by one pair of strips (1.15 –0.90 = 0.25) the acid in the lemon is citric acid.
To find out the difference between the two batteries, I have to take the highest voltage minus the lowest voltage. So this is done like this; the highest voltage was produced by the lemon battery and the lowest battery was produced by the Daniel’s battery. Therefore the difference is the highest take away the lowest (1.15 – 1.07 = 0.9) and the difference is 0.9 volts.
Using of electricity:
Electricity is used for many important things in our lives. We use the energy of electricity in our homes, schools, business and hospitals. In order for electrons to move, a source of energy is needed. This energy may exist in various forms: mechanical motion, light, heat, or a chemical reaction. Chemical energy is the source of power in batteries. Electricity has helped to bring the countries of the world closer by speeding up or improving in ways of communication. Telephones, faxes, televisions and other communications instruments use electricity as their source of energy.
Conclusion:
I was very surprised when I found out that a lemon could produce electricity. This also made me realise that any fruit can make electricity so long as it is acidic. The other thing I noticed is that you do have to use zinc and copper as your metals. Other types of metal can be used to replace them. A lemon can produce more current than the Daniel’s cell. Although the current did not get double as it was expected, it did get increased than it was in the first place.
