Science fair explanation

Introduction

If I asked you "What can you do with a lemon, lime or orange?", you would probably reply "eat them or use them in cooking". But little do you know there are many other things you can do with citrus fruit. And What I am going to inform you about today is how to produce eletricity using lemons, limes and oranges.

What is electricity?

How to produce electricity using lemons, limes and oranges.

Electricity is the generation of energy or power from natural resources eg; wind, water, sun etc. But there are also some non-natural resourses like nuculear power. New Zealand is a nuculear free country. We use electrity to power most things in our daily homes like computers, TV & radio, microwaves and to heat our water. Could you imagine a world today without electricity. We would be lighting our homes with candles again.

How to make a lemon, lime or orange battery

Firstly you will need:

oranges
limes
lemons
alligator clips
galvanized nails
copper eg. a penny
volt meter (to read the electricity)

Firstly push one copper penny and one nail into either side of a lemon, lime or orange. Now attach one alligator clip to the penny and another to the nail. At the other end of the alligator clip, attach it to the volt meter. Wullah! You have created a lemon, lime or orange battery.

How does this work?

The battery is made up of two different metals (the steel paper clip and the copper wire). These are called electrodes, which are the parts of a battery where electric current enters or leaves it. The electrodes are placed in a liquid containing an electrolyte, which is a solution that can conduct electricity.
Touching the electrodes to your tongue closes the circuit and allows an small electric current to flow. A single lemon produces about 7/10 of a volt of electricity. If you connected two lemons together, you can power an inexpensive digital watch (uses about 1.5 volts).
The tingle felt in your tongue and the metallic taste is due to the movement of electrons through the saliva on your tongue.

Conclusion

It is really unbeliveable at first that you can create electricty using citrus fruits. But now you know that it is possible. It is unforunate that this can't produce a lot of electricity though. In this explanation you should have learnt what electricity is, how to create a lemon, lime or orange battery and why you can produce electricty using citrus fruits. I hope that mankind will always look out for alternative energy sources in the future.