General Wolfe School

Lemon Power

By: Aaron

This was a fairly simple project, but requires you to follow the instructions exactly and make all of the right connections to achieve success. You'll also find that the lemon battery is much like a real battery as it is made up of several cells. It is also a voltaic cell, as it cannot be recharged. To make it, you need:

- 6 fresh lemons

- 6 copper coins

- 6 zinc washers

- steel paper clips

- wire with bare, stripped ends

- 1 low-voltage light emitting diode (LED)

The procedure goes as follows:

1. Sand the washers and coins to rid the surfaces of rust.

2. Squeeze the lemons without breaking the peels, then cut 2 slits in each lemon, no less than an inch apart.

3. Put 1 paper clip on each washer.

4. Insert the washers and coins into the slits in the lemons.

5. Connect the lemons together via the coins and washers ( you have to connect them by opposite "electrodes"; copper to zinc, zinc to copper ).

6. Connect the wires to the LED ( long end connected to a copper coin ).

And that's it. If done correctly the LED should light up. It took me a couple of tries so don't worry if you don't get it the first time.

Links to related sites:

http://www.physics.brown.edu/Studies/Demo/em/demo/5e4025.htm

http://www.dtekids.com/experiment_lemon.html

http://freeweb.pdq.net/headstrong/lemon.htm

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