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Produce Batteries

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Purpose

The purpose of this experiment is to determine which fruit or vegetable will produce the most volts of electricity.

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Hypothesis

If I test a lemon, potato, tomato, and an apple as a battery then I think the lemon will be the best battery and produce the most volts of electricity.

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Materials

3 potatoes

3 lemons

3 tomatoes

3 apples

1 multimeter

1 red lead wire

1 black lead wire

1 copper sheet

1 zinc sheet

2 wires

4 alligator clips

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Procedure

  • Gather all materials
  • Prepare multimeter by inserting the positive and negative lead wires into the correct terminal on the multimeter and turn it on.
  • Make small slits on each side of potato number one.
  • Insert the copper sheet three quarters of the way into one slit.
  • Insert the zinc sheet three quarters of the way into the other slit.
  • Clamp the positive (red) alligator clip onto the copper sheet.
  • Clamp the negative (black) alligator clip onto the zinc sheet.
  • Clamp the other end of the positive wire onto the red lead wire of the multimeter.
  • Clamp the other end of the negative wire onto the black lead wire of the multimeter.
  • Record the data from the multimeter.
  • Repeat steps 3 through 10 for the remaining 2 potatoes.
  • Repeat steps 3 through 10 for each tomato, apple and lemon.

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Data

Variable

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Average

Potato

1.66V

1.58V

1.57V

1.60V

Tomato

1.66V

1.62V

1.56V

1.61V

Apple

1.71V

1.69V

1.71V

1.70V

Lemon

1.45V

1.44V

1.46V

1.45V

The apples produced the highest voltage, with an average of 1.70 volts. The tomatoes produced the second highest voltage, with an average of 1.61 volts. The potatoes produced the next highest voltage, with an average of 1.60 volts. The lemons produced the least voltage, with an average of 1.45 volts.

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Conclusion

My hypothesis that lemons would produce the most volts of electricity compared to potatoes, tomatoes and apples was incorrect. Based on the results of my experiment, apples are the best battery and produced the most volts of electricity with an average of 1.7 volts over three trials. Lemons were actually the worst produce battery tested, with an average of 1.45 volts. According to the article “Why Do Some Fruits and Vegetables Conduct Electricity?” by Joanna Fantozzi, “The best food battery is any fruit or vegetable that has high levels of superconductive ions, such as potassium or sodium, and the proper internal structure to create a working current.” While lemons contain high amounts of potassium, they don’t work as well as other food batteries because they are segmented inside which can disrupt the current.

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Real World Connection

The results of this experiment are useful in the real world because in the future plant based resources may power certain machines and technology. Finding out that apples produce the most volts out of the produce that was tested in this experiment could be useful information. Also, if you didn’t have any power during a storm and ran out of batteries you could use produce to power a small flashlight for a short amount of time. Knowing which fruit or vegetable works best could maximize the amount of time that the flashlight would stay on.

3 apples power a small LED light

3 apples power a digital timer