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Lemon-Powered Light

By Rookie Parenting Science Updated 05/15/2020

Did you know that you can easily make a homemade battery?

It’s not hard at all. You don’t need to buy any special equipment for that.

Ok, you may need some equipment, but I bet you can get them by rummaging the house (that’s what I did šŸ™‚ ).

I guarantee your kids will be all awe struck!

Lemon battery experiment

How To Use Lemon To Power Light

Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Learn how to use fruits to generate electricity.

Materials

  • lemons (You can start with 4. In general, the more you use, the more power can be generated)
  • low voltage LED light bulb (you can buy small LED diodes or get one from an old Christmas string light decoration)
  • copper wire
  • galvanized nails (the same number as the number of lemons used)
  • electrical wires or alligator clips

Tools

  • wire cutter
  • adult supervision

Instructions

  1. Roll and squeeze the lemons a little bit by hand to release the juice inside.
  2. In each lemon, insert 1 nail and 1 small strip of copper wire. Leave a small section in each one out for the electrical wires to connect.
  3. Using an electrical wire, connect the nail in one lemon to the copper strip in another lemon. Do this to each lemon to form a chain.

    Connect 3 lemons together using nails, coppers and alligator clips to form a chain
  4. In the first lemon, connect the copper to the long leg of the LED light. In the last lemon, connect the nail to the shorter end of the LED light (the shorter leg comes out of the flat side of the LED).
  5. Voila! You have made a battery.

    Using the lemon setup, LED is lit

Notes

Why

Batteries are made of two different types of metal suspended in an acidic solution.

In this experiment, copper and zinc (galvanized nails are zinc-plated) are the two metals and the lemon juice is the acidic solution.

An electric current is created when the two metals have different tendencies to lose the negatively chargedĀ electrons.

Because zinc loses electrons more readily than copper, zinc is theĀ negative electrodeĀ (anode) and copper is theĀ positive electrode(cathode).Ā 

When the battery is connected with a LED bulb, the circuit becomesĀ closed.

Electrons flow from the zinc electrode through the LED bulb to the copper electrode and the bulb lights up.

Explore

Now it’s time to explore more. Can you try the experiment again with the following modifications and see what differences they make?

  • Use a different type of fruit.
  • Use other substances such as a vegetable or a cupĀ of tap water as the conducting solution.
  • Use different metals as the electrodes.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

  • Test Lead Set with Alligator Clips
    Test Lead Set with Alligator Clips
  • Clear White Light LED Set
    Clear White Light LED Set
  • Galvanized Wire Nail
    Galvanized Wire Nail
© Rookie Parenting

Obviously, this lemon battery cannot power up a camera or even a kid’s toy. As you can see, our LED only lighted up slightly.

But it is a fabulous experiment to demonstrate how direct current (DC) can be generated.

Here are an easy experiment about simple circuit and magnet-powered electricity.

References

  • Electrochemical Cells by HyperPhysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University
LED is powered up with by a lemon! Homemade battery using lemons, nails and wires. It's so simple!

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