Download Lemons with Power

Lemons with Power
Grade Level: 6
Strand: Understanding Matter and Energy
Topic: Electricity and Electrical Devices
Curriculum expectation:
6s52: design and construct a variety of electrical circuits and investigate ways in which electrical
energy is transformed into other forms of energy
6s54: investigate ways in which electrical energy can be transformed into other forms of energy
(e.g., into light, heat, and sound)
Specific Expectation:
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Students will create their own electric circuit to include electrodes, electrons, electrolytes
and conductors.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of electric circuits through manipulation of
lemon batteries.
Materials:
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4 lemons
4 galvanized nails
4 pennies between the years of 1960 and 2001
On LED light bulb
1 volt meter
5 connection wires
Safety goggles
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Lab coats
Procedure:
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Line up four lemons
Push in galvanized nails (negative end) into one end of the lemon.
Cut a small incision into the opposite end of the lemon. Push in a penny into each
incision, creating a positive end to your Lemon Battery.
See example below:
The nail (negative) and penny (positive) should NOT touch.
Next, attach one end of the connecting wires to the nail (negative), and the other end
attach to the penny (positive) of another lemon.
Continue attaching lemons together in this manner, until you have negative and positive
wires not connected to anything.
Once the lemons are connected in this way, they are ready to be connected to the LED
light bulb.
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Attach negative wire to the negative side of the light bulb and the positive wire to the
positive side of the light bulb.
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There should be enough voltage to light the LED light bulb.
Scientific Principle:
Batteries consist of two types of metals, which are suspended in an acidic solution. In
order to mimic the battery, we can use Copper and Zinc that will suspend in citric acid, which
will combine two metals and suspend in an acidic solution.
The lemon batteries require a zinc nail and copper penny to serve as electrodes. The
lemon juice within the lemon serves as our electrolyte, or acidic solution. All batteries have a
“+” “- “ terminal. The electric currents flow particles which are called electrons. To allow the
flow of electrons, it requires conductors to flow through them. For example, most metals, such
as copper and iron, are great conductors of electricity. An electron flows from the “-“ electrode
of a battery, through the conductor, to the “+” end of the battery. According to how many volts
the batteries measures at, you will be able to light a light bulb!
Glossary:
Galvanization is the process of coating iron or steel with a thin zinc layer.
An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit
Electrons are the negatively charged particles of atoms. Together, all of the electrons of an atom
create a negative charge that balances the positive charge of the protons in the atomic nucleus.
An electrolyte is any substance containing free ions that behaves as an electrically conductive
medium. Because they generally consist of ions in solution, electrolytes are also known as ionic
solutions, but molten electrolytes and solid electrolytes are also possible.
In science and engineering, a conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges.
In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminium, the movable charged particles are
electrons. Positive charges may also be mobile in the form of atoms in a lattice missing electrons
(called "holes") or ions, such as in the electrolyte of a battery.
Other Considerations:
 Students will be required to wear proper safety equipment throughout the experiment.
 Difficulties may occur as a result of Copper and Zinc quality, producing low voltage.
References:
Lemon Battery. Hila Science Camp. Pembroke, Ontario
<http://hilaroad.com/camp/projects/lemon/lemon_battery.html>. (date viewed: September, 20,
2008)