Citrus Battery

Question

What metals are required to make a citrus fruit battery?

Hypothesis

If I add zinc strips and copper wire together and insert them into the lime, then the diode will
light up. I think this because the ATP energy from the fruit will conduct through both metals and light up
the diode.

Experimental Design

Control Experimental Experimental Experimental Experimental

Group Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

1 Lime 1 Lime 1 Lime 1 Lime 1 Lime

2 Alligator Clips 2 Alligator Clips 2 Alligator Clips 2 Alligator Clips 2 Alligator Clips

1 Zinc Strip 1 Lead Strip 1 Magnesium Strip 1 piece of Tin 1 piece of nickel

Copper Wire Copper Wire Copper Wire Copper Wire Copper Wire

Diodes Diodes Diodes Diodes Diodes

Manipulated Variable: Type of metal strips

Responding Variable: The brightness of light in the diode

Controlled Variable: The copper wire, the lime, the alligator clips, the types of diodes

ECC: No metal

Trials: Twice per each strip of metal

Procedure

1. Collect all the needed materials.

2. Insert the zinc strip and copper wire into the lime.
 3. Attach the alligator clips from copper to diode and zinc to diode.

4. See if the diode lights up.

5. Record how bright the diode is or if there is any light at all.

6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 with lead, magnesium, tin, and nickel.

7. Repeat entire procedure twice for each type of metal to ensure the validity of its results.

Data

Types of Metals Diode Light

Zinc and Copper No
Lead and Copper No
Magnesium and Copper No
Tin and Copper No
Nickel and Copper No

The graph shows no relationship between the types of metals used and the amount of light created.

Interpretation and Conclusion

In conclusion, my hypothesis was not supported and not contradicted. My conclusion cannot be supported with high
and low data points because no light was created from any of the metal combinations. This means that we had many sources
of errors. One source of error is that we didn’t use enough citrus fruits, since we didn’t use more than 1 citrus fruit not
enough energy could be generated to light one diode. Also, we could’ve used a diode with too high of a energy requirement,
if we used a smaller diode than less fruit energy would be required to make it light up. Also, since we used zinc strips
instead of zinc coated nails this could’ve affected our experiment because it’s recommended that zinc nails and copper be
used together instead of zinc strips. Lastly, the positive and negative ends of the alligator clips could’ve been connected the
wrong way to the positive and negative ends of the diode, this would affect if the diode’s ability to light up.