Lab Experiment: Fruit Battery Superlab

Fruit Battery Superlab

Introduction:

A voltaic cell is an electrochemical cell that uses a chemical reaction to produce electrical energy. A chemical reaction occurs when a more reactive metal and a less reactive metal are connected in a circuit together. In the last lab, hydrochloric acid as well as copper, lead, and magnesium were used to create voltaic cells. Batteries is an example of a voltaic cell. They have three main parts, an anode, a cathode, and the electrolyte. The cathode and anode (the positive and negative sides at either end of a traditional battery) connect the battery to the circuit. The electrolyte of a battery consists of soluble salts, acids or other bases in liquid, gelled and dry forms, and it serves as catalyst to make

Variables:

Independent variable: Type and Amount of Fruit

Dependent Variable: Voltage and Current of Fruits

Control Variable: Environment, Type of Metals, Wires Used, Multimeter Used

Hypothesis:

Because of lime being the most acidic out of the fruit, it will have the highest voltage whereas zucchini or cherry tomato will have the lowest, as the vegetables are lower in acidity.

Materials:

Four different fruits (Apple, Zucchini, Lime, Cherry Tomato)

Twenty-five pieces of zinc and copper (Fifty total, each about 3.5-4 cm

If the wires used do not function well, replace them. Do this process until all six wires are functioning.

Once all wires operate accordingly, cut each fruit into five pieces, or for the cherry tomato, cut three pieces in half.

When this action is done, insert one piece of zinc and one piece of copper into each fruit

Next, connect the pieces of metal in one fruit by attaching the wires as seen in Figure 3.

Connect the multimeter to the circuit and turn in on.

Set the multimeter to twenty voltage and record voltage.

Do the same with current, setting it to twenty current instead.

Repeat steps 5-8 nineteen more times, except each time changing the fruit and amount of fruit used.

Results:

Table 1: Apple

Amount of Fruit

Voltage (Volts)

Current (Amps)

1

0.88

0.03

2

1.80

0.04

3

2.49

0.04