Lemon battery - electricity from a fruit?

• 2 lemons
• Multimeter 
• Electrical cables, possibly addtional clamps
• Copper wire (3 pieces)
• Zinc wire or galvanized wire (3 pieces)
• Knife (for cutting the lemons)

 

 Implementation - lemon battery with one lemon half:

1. Cut the lemons in half.
2. Insert one copper wire and one zinc wire into the lemon half. 

3. Connect the wires to the multimeter. Use additional clamps if required. If the multimeter has cables, you can use them as well.

4. Switch on the multimeter and select the appropriate measurement mode.

 

Task 1:

• Build a lemon battery consisting of one lemon half and measure the voltage with the multimeter.
• Enter the measured value in the table.

 

Implementation - lemon battery with several halves:

1. Put a copper wire and a zinc wire into each lemon half and put the lemon halves next to each other.
2. Connect the copper wire of one lemon half with a cable to the zinc wire of the other lemon half.
3. Now the electrical circuit must be closed: use the cables and possibly clamps for this.

Tip: 

To avoid short circuits, always connect copper and zinc wires (not e. g. a copper wire with a copper wire).

 

 Task 2:

• Use two or three lemon halves connected in series to build a lemon battery with more than one lemon half.
• Measure the voltage using the multimeter and enter the values in the table. 

Arrangements of lemons	Voltage / V
1 half
2 halves, series connection
3 halves, series connection

 

Which order is correct? 

Solution A (corresponds to code: 2)

U_{3 halves, in series} > U_{2 halves, in series} < U_{1 half}

Solution B (corresponds to code: 9)

U_{3 halves, in series} > U_{2 halves, in series} > U_{1 half}

Solution C (corresponds to code: 1)

U_{3 halves, in series} < U_{2 halves, in series} < U_{1 half}

Solution D (corresponds to code: 3)

U_{3 halves, in series} = U_{2 halves, in series} = U_{1 half}