Purpose: Which fruit will produce the most electric voltage?

Hypothesis: compared to other fruits, lemon will produce the most electric volts when connected to the voltmeter.

Photo by Dids from Pexels

Materials:

• 1 voltmeter
• 2 wires
• 1 nail
• 1 copper strip
• At least 3 fruits/vegetables

procedure:

1. Pierce the fruit with the copper strip and nail
2. clip the two wires onto the strip and nail
3. clip the wires onto the voltmeter
4. make observations on the amount of electric volts produced
5. repeat

Reasoning:

The lemon will produce the most electric volt because it’s an acidic fruit.

Results:

       0.4V

       0.3V

       0.4V

        0.4V

        0.6V

         0.4V

 

Observations:

1. The cantaloupe had the most voltage compared to other fruits/vegetable
2. Most of the fruits/vegetable were the same measure of voltage ( potato, lemon and pear)
3. You had to connect the nail and copper in a certain order to get the light bulb to shine
4. There needs to be more than 1 fruit the lighten up the light bulb

 

Most important finding:

The cantaloupe had generated the highest voltage compared to the other fruits/vegetable we’ve done.

 

Questions:

What is causing electrons to flow in this experiment?

The electrons are flowing because the pairs of electrodes ( zinc and copper strip) we had stick in the fruits/vegetables.

What are the independent, dependent, and controlled variables in the experiment?

Independent variable: which of the fruits are used in the experiment

Dependent variable: the amount of voltage generated by the fruits/vegetables

Controlled variable: the nail, copper strip and wires used in the experiment

How can we modify our experiment to improve our results?

We could make sure that the materials are in the same distance and height, or we can also add more fruits so we can produce more electric voltage.

What could be sources of error or uncertainty in our experiment?

The differences between the size of the fruits could be a cause of an error, this could cause the electric voltage to have quite a difference in numbers. Having a consistent size of fruit would be more accurate in the results. Another one could be that the copper strips and nails aren’t properly cleaned before piercing it into a different fruit to be tested. This could cause an error in the results because the materials were contaminated with the left overs of last test object.

How can I use this in my everyday life?

To be able to acknowledge that fruits can conduct electricity, we could use this knowledge into helping to replace or temporarily use fruits as a source of electricity when in desperate needs. Situations like an power outage that could last for days or when you need to wait for a few days until electricians can arrive to your home to fix your electricity issue.

Conclusion:

My hypothesis was incorrect, instead of the lemon generating the most voltage because of it being an acidic fruit, the cantaloupe was the one with the most voltage instead. This was probably caused because of the size difference of the cantaloupe compared to other fruits we’ve tested. Are there any fruits or vegetables that doesn’t have voltage?