Electricity and Lemon Power.

Purpose
Does the gauge of a wire affect the amount of electrical current a lemon can produce?

Research
In history, electrolysis and electrical resistance was first discovered in 1789 and 1827 by Faraday and Georg
Ohm, and the first battery was invented in 1800. Electrolysis is the process of electric current passing through
a substance to effect a chemical change, and the electrical resistance is the opposition offered by an electrical
conductor to the flow of a current. The electrical resistance can be adjusted by the thickness of the wire. An
experiment can be conducted by the lemon battery, which can be made by plugging copper and zinc metal
into a lemon and connecting them with the wire. In the lemon battery, the lemon juice, which is an acid, can
play a role or electrolyte and change chemical energy into electrical energy. With the lemon juice, the zinc
metal will be negatively charged and copper will be positively charged. The electrons from zinc will flow out
the wire, through the circuit and re-enter the lemon through the copper penny during the electrolysis process.
The electrodes, which are copper and zinc metals, will gain and lose electrons from each other. Eventually, this
produces electricity. To summarize, a lemon battery changes a chemical energy into electrical energy.

Hypothesis
If a wire is thicker, then its resistance will be lower because the number of electrons that wire can carry
depend on its thickness. The thicker wire can carry more electrons than thinner one.

Procedure
Materials
3cm bare 10-gauge copper wire 3cm strip of zinc

3cm bare 12-gauge copper wire medium-sized lemon

3cm bare 18-gauge copper wire wire clippers

Variables
Independent: gauge (thickness of wire)

Dependent: tingle effect

Fixed (Constants): Same lemon, same zinc strip

Steps
1. Roll the lemon firmly on a counter to release some of the juices.

2. Insert the one copper 18 gauge wire and one zinc strip vertically into the lemon, with one end sticking out.

3. Connect one wire lead to each metal strip (electrode).

4. Moisten your tongue and touch the tip of it to the copper and zinc strips.

5. Record the amount of tingle felt on the tongue using 1 for weakest tingle and 10 for strongest.

6. Remove the 18 gauge wire and repeat the above steps with 12 and 10 gauge copper wires, and record the

strength of the “tingle” each time in the table.

Analysis
Data Table

Control Group Experimental Group

Wire Gauge (Thickness) 18 12 10

Tingle Effect 2 8 10

(1-10)

Graph
Explanation
The graph above shows the relationship between the gauge of wire and amount of tingle created. On the
graph, we can see that 18-gauge wire, which is the thinnest, created the tingle sensation of 2 on the scale of 1-
10. While the 12-gauge wire created the tingle sensation of 8, and the 10-gauge wire, which is the thickest,
created the tingle sensation of 10.

Conclusion
The purpose of this experiment was to see if the gauge (thickness) of a wire affects the amount of current a
lemon can produce. The procedure involved making a lemon battery by pushing two metals, zinc and copper,
and connecting them with the wire. The hypothesis is well supported by the experiment conducted with
lemon battery because the amount of tingle created with thinnest wire, 18-guage wire, was a scale of 2 out of
10, however, the thickest wire, 10-guage wire created the tingle effect of 10. The next step could be an
experiment looking at the amount of the electrolyte and electrical current. This experiment can be conducted
by lemon battery again, but with dry lemon and normal lemon. This is because the dry lemon has little
electrolyte, and normal lemon has more electrolyte. This experiment is useful because a lot of electricity is
being used in our daily life, and we can figure out how electricity work and what kind of factors affect the
current, voltage, and resistance.