Did you know you could make a battery from a lemon? Well yes you can, and you could make an LED light up too, if you used enough fruit. The great news is you won’t destroy the lemons in the process. Although you won’t be able to return them to the store with holes in them. Here’s what you will need to build a lemon battery in the kitchen, but do ask permission first.
Tools and Materials to Light an LED with Lemons
A lead acid battery, when you think about it is actually just two metal terminals with acid flowing around plus a load. Our lemon battery is already full of another of type of acid, so all we need is positive and negative terminals plus a device?
Perfectly correct! For this experiment you will need:
Four fresh juicy lemons fresh from the store
Eight shiny new zinc-plated nails about an inch long
Four pieces of wire with crocodile clips each end
One LED with some copper wire round each terminal
Four Easy Steps to Build Your Lemon Battery
An LED needs around three volts to light up properly. Whereas if you test an average lemon it has nine tenths of a volt potential. Therefore you are going to need four lemons for this experiment.
Now about the electrodes. We will use 8 zinc-plated nails about an inch long for this experiment, two for each lemon. We suggest four pieces of wire with alligator clips at each end, say at least a foot long.
Finally, we need the LED, the star of our show! Lay your hands on one with wires attached to the terminals. Easiest is borrow one from a set of Christmas lights you don’t need any more. Now watch this neat video to bring everything together and ‘light up your life’.
That was fun, wasn’t it? There are loads more battery experiments on the internet. Just make sure you have an adult with you. Always check they are as safe as the ones on this website.
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Preview Image: 4 Lemons Light Up a LED
Video Share Link: https://youtu.be/WNx-bwlTATI
