The experiment aimed to determine if a single citrus fruit could power a light bulb by measuring the voltage produced by various fruits. The results showed that none of the fruits produced enough voltage to power the bulb, with clementines yielding the highest voltage at 0.813v to 0.815v. The experiment concluded that the initial hypothesis was false, and future attempts may involve connecting multiple fruits for greater voltage.

1. By: Seth Kessel

3.  My hypothesis is that the electrodes in a single
citrus fruit will be an alternative way to power
something like a light bulb. I base my
hypothesis on that there will be enough
electrodes to power a light bulb.

5.  The purpose of this experiment was to see if
there was an alternative way to have a battery
source. I became interested in this experiment
when I was putting batteries in my flashlight
and I wanted to know what else could be used
to power a light bulb. The information
gathered in this experiment with help others by
helping someone power something for a short
period of time.

6. 2 Grapefruits
2 Lemons
2 Limes
2 Clementine’s
25 feet Copper wire
26 Copper nails
14 Zinc screws
1 Voltometer/multimeter
4-8 Pennies
1 Knife
1 AA 1.5v battery
1 Light bulb with leads

8. 1. Get your multimeter, pennies, knife, screws, bulb, and
citrus fruits out and ready.
2. Take the lemon and make a small slice and put in the
penny. Then push the zinc screw in and measure the
voltage with your multimeter.
3. After put the copper screw into the fruit.
4. Take the copper wire and wrap it around each screw
and see if you get it to light up the bulb.
5. Record the data and move on to the next fruit.
6. Once done with one type of each fruit repeat with
second of each fruit.
7. Once you are done, record and compare your results.
Then pick the fruit with the highest range of voltage.

9. April 25th, 2012 12:00pm Left house to get
supplies for project.
Went to Home Depot,
Kroger, and Farmers
Market. Worked on for
an hour and a half.
May 1st, 2012 11:15am Used citrus fruits,
pennies, zinc nails,
copper wire, AA 1.5v
battery, and light bulb
with leads for
experiment. Also used
multimeter to measure
the voltage of the fruits.
Was unable to power
light bulb with fruits.
Worked on for one hour
and fifteen minutes.

11.  The original purpose of this experiment was to see
if one citrus fruit was an alternative way to power
a light bulb and see how much voltage a single
fruit could produce. The results of the experiment
were that one fruit was not able to power a light
bulb. Also the voltage of each fruit is as follows;
Lemons produced 0.660v to 0.720v, the Limes
produced 0.629v to 0.738v, the Grapefruits
produced 0.602v to 0.730v, the Oranges produced
0.668v to 0.690v, and the Clementine’s produced
0.813v to 0.815v. From the results, on average, the
Clementine’s produce the highest voltage.

13.  My hypothesis was that one single citrus fruit
would be able to power a light bulb. I base my
hypothesis on the idea that if it were able to power
a light bulb, it might have been an early version of
a light bulb, to early people. The results indicate
that this hypothesis should be considered false.
The amount of voltage produced by one fruit is not
strong enough. Because of the results of this
experiment, I wonder if more than one fruit might
have been able to power a light bulb. If I were to
conduct this science fair project again I would try
connecting more than one fruit together to try to
get a higher voltage.

15.  The purpose of this experiment was to see if there was an alternative way to have a
battery source. I became interested in this experiment when I was putting batteries in my
flashlight and I wanted to know what else could be used to power a light bulb. The
information gathered in this experiment with help others by helping someone power
something for a short period of time. My hypothesis is that the electrodes in a single
citrus fruit will be an alternative way to power something like a light bulb. I base my
hypothesis on that there will be enough electrodes to power a light bulb. The constants
and controls in my experiment were a regular AA 1.5v battery powering a light bulb and
the fruits. The variable in experiment was the penny and the zinc nail. I measure the
dependant variable by using a multimeter to measure the voltage. The results of the
experiment were that none of the fruits were able to produce enough voltage to power a
light bulb. The lemons produced 0.660v to 0.720v, the limes produced 0.629v to 0.738v,
the grapefruits produced 0.602v to 0.730v, the oranges produced 0.668v to 0.690v, and
the Clementine’s produced 0.813v to 0.815v. The results show that my hypothesis should
not be accepted because the fruits were not able to produce enough voltage to power a
light bulb and my hypothesis said that it would be able to. If I were going to do this
experiment again in the future or expand on this experiment I would try connecting
more than one citrus fruit together to try to get a larger voltage and try to power a light
bulb.

16.  Helmenstine, Anne M.
"Fruit Battery." About.com Chemistry. Web. 07
May 2012.
<http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryho
wtoguide/a/fruitbattery.htm>.

 "Lemon Battery." Lemon Battery. Web. 07 May
2012.
<http://www.hilaroad.com/camp/projects/le
mon/lemon_battery.html>.

17.  What device did I use to measure the voltage of
the fruits?
 How many fruits did I use?
 What fruits did I use?
 What do all of those fruits have in common?
 Where did I go to get my supplies?