CURRENTS FROM THE KITCHEN

(images at the bottom)

Purpose: Which fruit will produce the most electric voltage?

Hypothesis: My hypothesis is that lemons will have the highest voltage. When we try to power something with a lemon, the amount of acid and sourness, and every aspect of a lemon, will make the voltage act up, and power whatever we are trying to do with the electricity.

Materials:

• Clipping cords (red and black)
• Voltmeter
• Fruits
• Nail
• Copper

Procedure:

• Stick the copper and nail into chosen fruit.
• Clip the red cord onto one of the metals and then clip it onto the red knob on the voltage reader
• Clip black cord onto the other metal and then attach it to the black knob on the voltage reader
• Write down voltages of each fruit you test

fruits voltages:

orange –  0.2

apple –  0.2

banana – 0.3

pickle – 0.6

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

• Independent – The independent variable in our experiment was the fruits. Though the metals, cords and voltmeter didn’t move around much, we had to switch the fruits we were experimenting on every time we wanted to find out a new voltage.
• Dependent – The dependent variables in this experiment were all the different volt charges. All the charges for the different fruits (except for apple and orange) were different, meaning that the number on the scale was a dependent variable.
• Controlled – The controlled variables were the cords. They played the same roles throughout the whole entire experiment – one clipped to copper, the other onto a nail, and clipped onto the voltmeter. The voltage was changing because the metal was going into different pieces of fruit, but the cords never changed places on the metals, or on the knobs on the voltmeter.

How can we modify our experiment to improve our results?

I think that we could get a bigger scale on the voltmeter, to be able to get as direct onto the amount of the voltage, and that everybody should bring a wider variety of fruits! More citrus fruits, more unique and exotic ones, and also some vegetables like the pickle or the potato.

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

A definite area where people could make mistakes, is attempting to read the voltmeter. I was confused as to how to read it as well until Tristan explained it to Braedon and Braedon explained it to me. Its also possible to mess up the arrangement of the cords – for example, having two black ones instead of one black cord and one red one, or people could somehow put the metals into their fruits incorrectly.

How can I use this in my every day life?

I can use the skills I learned in this experiment in every day life if I ever need to power a light bulb, or for some reason the power has gone out, I can figure out DIY ways to fix it, with regular things I could find around my house, and it’s also just a pretty cool skill to show off, haha.

Conclusion.

I didn’t get to try out our experiment on a lemon, but I think, that in a way I was right. Pickles, like lemons are sort of citric, and sour, and have lots of flavor and qualities to them, and the pickle, out of all the fruits we tried, had the highest voltage. I’m not sure if it was because of the things that I hypothesized, but I would like to say that my conclusion is like a second hypothesis that I want to do research on in the future.

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