Recently, on the Internet you can see many amazing videos about interesting crafts, useful life hacks and scientific experiments. How applicable are they in real life? Do they work outside the internet? Is it true that you can make a battery of 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 a modern battery were carried out in the 18th century! If at that far time someone was able to detect the current using improvised means, then to conduct such an experiment now will not be a particular problem.
Need to try!
This experience is definitely worth conducting if a schoolchild 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 the boys to participate in it. This is not a boring homework and puzzles! A real scientific experiment! Moreover, no special adaptations are needed for this - just the most ordinary items that are found in every house are enough.
What you need to create a battery of lemon
- Zinc bolts or screws, galvanized nails are future negative electrodes.
- Copper plates, coins - will serve as positive electrodes.
- Lemons whose juice will become electrolyte. It depends on him a lot in this experience. Lemons should be as juicy as possible.
- Postings for connecting elements. They must first be cleaned of insulation. Any small pieces of wiring will do.
- Light-emitting diode. He will become a current consumer, a living illustrator of the success of the experiment. You can buy in a radio store or use a diode from any unnecessary equipment or an old tape recorder. You do not need to take more powerful devices (an incandescent lamp) - the current strength obtained in the experiment is simply not enough.
- Multimeter. It may not be, but it will make the experience more visual and interesting.
Experiment!
Having finished the search for the necessary items, you can proceed to the most intriguing. Create current! How to make a battery out of lemon?
Be sure to prepare the fruit. Citruses must be thoroughly kneaded by pressing with your fingers and rolling with pressure to the table until they become soft. Loss of elasticity means that they released a large amount of juice inside. The more it is, 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 the electrodes on a lemon battery. On the one hand, carefully insert the positive (copper coin), and on the other hand, the negative (zinc bolt) electrodes. It is better to insert them about a third or half of 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 occur.
From above on electrodes it is necessary to accurately fix wires. If they have clamps 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 one battery from the lemon "emits". This is where the multimeter is sure to come in handy. With the help of already accurate data that were revealed during a real scientific experiment, it is possible to calculate together with a young genius how many such โtastyโ elements you need to have on hand to light a LED lamp or make an old calculator work.
As a rule, in order for the LED to light up, you will need to take at least five fruits. Everything will depend on the specific citrus and diode. Of course, you can do without a multimeter and simply connect more and more elements to the 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.
To diversify the menu
The current strength will necessarily increase if several batteries of lemons are connected in series. And here it is absolutely unimportant whether fruits of only one type are used. So, it will be interesting to try and see how much current an orange, potato, apple and even onion can "give out".
Empirically, several young physicists have already found that the current strength increases with increasing acidity of the juice of a fruit or vegetable. You can even write all the results in one plate, revealing the most "energetic" fruit. Many students annually conduct precisely such experiments as part of school elective studies, posting interesting notes and reports on their observations. Here is such a simple and exciting science!
conclusions
It turns out that itโs easy enough to make a battery of lemon, apple or kiwi at home. A very visual and exciting experience! One of its main advantages is that it will take quite a bit of time and does not require any preliminary preparation.