June
28
Lemon Batteries: Lighting an LED With Lemons
Did you know that fruits and veggies may be used to illuminate an LED?
You will require the following supplies for this experiment:
- 4 potatoes or lemons
- Galvanized nails, four
- 4 copper wires or 4 U.S. copper pennies (pre-1982 coins only, due to the change in copper content).
- LED lighting
- a blade
- 5 test leads for alligators
Step 1: Creating the Batteries
- Cut a penny-sized slit on the right side of the lemon with the knife.
- Insert the penny deeply into the lemon, allowing just enough space for your alligator jumper to catch on. Your positive terminal will be this.
- Next, make the battery’s negative terminal. One of the galvanized nails should be inserted into the lemon’s left side, about two inches from the penny. It’s crucial to keep the penny and nail apart. They will short out if they come into contact.
- Carry on in this manner until you have 4 full batteries.
Step 2: Adding the Jumpers
- Ascertain that the lemons are parallel to one another.
- One of the alligator clips should be fastened to the first lemon’s nail (the negative terminal).
- Next, connect the second jumper wire between the nail (negative terminal) in the second lemon and the coin (positive terminal) in the first lemon. Once all the lemons are linked, add the remaining clips, alternating between positive and negative.
Step 3: Lighting the LED
- The first jumper wire from the nail should be connected to the LED’s negative connector. The shorter wire closest to the base of the LED serves as the negative connection.
- Then, attach the jumper wire to the LED’s positive connector at the end of the last lemon in your chain. The LED will turn on after your circuit is complete!
- Try out several fruits and veggies to find which one generates the highest voltage! The brightness of the light increases with voltage. Just under 1 volt is produced by the typical lemon. To light an LED, we require at least 3.5 volts. We require 4 lemon batteries because of this.