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Fruit Powered Batteries
By
Billie-Jo Duffy
Mr. Waye
8H
March 31, 2009
Abstract
Title: Fruit Powered Batteries
Author: Billie-Jo Duffy
The purpose of this project was to see which fruit has a higher voltage and what fruit
will power a calculator? It was hypothesized that if all the materials are attached
correctly the fruit juices will act as battery acid and the fruits will be used to power a
calculator. It was also hypothesized that the lemon will give off more power than the
orange will because lemons are more of a citrus fruit than oranges. To conduct this
experiment put a nail and a copper wire in a lemon then and orange. After a battery
tester was attached a voltage was recorded for each fruit. Then wires were used to
attach each fruit to a calculator and a voltage was recorded while the fruit was being
used. There were five lemons and five oranges used. The voltage was recorded for
each use of the fruit and then the voltages were used to make a graph. Each graph
represented the voltages of the lemons and oranges. One graph represented the
voltages of the fruit when they were attached to the calculator and the other represented
the voltages of the fruit when they were not being used by the calculator. Data tables
were also used to show the numbers of the voltages. The hypothesis of the lemon
having more power than the orange was false. The orange gave off more power than
the lemons. The hypothesis was also wrong because none of the fruit had enough
power to turn on the calculator.
Fruit Powered batteries
Purpose: The purpose of this project is to see which fruit has a higher voltage and what
fruit will power a calculator?
Research: “Different kinds of batteries have different characteristics”. Batteries come in
different sizes and voltages for example a AA battery would have a higher
voltage than a AAA because a AA battery is bigger.
The chemicals inside a battery produce different electrons. Positive
positive electrons and negative electrons, When the battery is placed inside
something like a camera the chemicals start to react and the two electrons
meet giving the camera power.
January 15, 2009 – http://howstuffworks.com/battery.htm
January 13, 2009 - http://www.sciencebuddies.org/project ideas/Elc p029.shtml//
January 13, 2009 – http://www.chem.ubc.ca/ungraduatebrochure/whatchem.shtml
Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that if all the materials are attached correctly the
fruit juices will act as battery acid and the fruits will be used to
power a calculator. The controlled variables are the wires, nails,
fruits and the type of calculator that will be used. The uncontrolled
variables are the amount of power that each fruit will give off and
which fruit will make a better battery.
Procedure: Step 1: Poke a galvanized nail in one end of the fruit and on the other side
put a three inch piece of copper wire. This will make your positive and
negative terminals.
Step 2: Attach the battery tester to the positive terminal (copper wire) then
to the negative terminal (galvanized nail).
Step 3: Observe and record the voltage shown on the battery tester.
Step 4: attach a small calculator to the positive and negative terminals. Do
this by attaching an alligator clip to both terminals and then put the opposite
end of the clips into the calculator where the battery would normally be
placed. record your voltage while the battery is being used.
Step 5: Repeat the steps above on 5 lemons and 5 oranges.
Analysis: Data Charts in Appendix A
Graphs In Appendix B
Appendix A
Without Calculator
Trial 1
Lemon
0.0
Orange
-20.1
Trial 2
-20.1
0.0
Trial 3
0.1
-20.2
Trial 4
-21.0
-20.1
Trial 5
0.0
0.0
Trial 2
-20.2
0.0
Trial 3
-20.0
-20.4
Trial 4
-20.0
-20.5
Trial 5
0.0
-20.0
With Calculator
Lemon
Orange
Trial 1
-20.0
-20.3
Appendix B
Graph With Calculator
Graph Without Calculator
Conclusion: The hypothesis was incorrect. It was hypothesized that if all the materials
hooked up properly the fruit being used would power a small calculator.
It was observed that none of the oranges gave off very much power when
weren’t attached to the calculator, When the oranges were attached to
the calculator they still did not give off much power and they didn’t give
off enough power to turn on the small calculator. It was also that the
lemons gave off a little more power than the oranges but still did not have
enough power to turn on the calculator. The lemons did give off more
power than the oranges but they still would not make a very good battery.
In conclusion none of the fruit had enough power to turn on a calculator.