Lemon and Potato Battery!

Today we made a battery out of Lemons and Potatoes!

This came about from the question "What is electricity?"  I had suggested that electricity is not a source of power... ie. you can't go dig up some electricity out of the ground!

John's smart reply was "of course not, it grows on trees!"   (I like his sense of humour)

We all laughed because that's nonsense.   Right?

So, this week, we made electricity from Lemons and Potatoes.  (thanks Dad)

Harvey and John wired the four together with copper and zinc (galvanised) nails inserted into the ends of each fruit/veg.  The lemons made 0.9V whereas the potatoes produced about 0.6V

In all we had about 3.5V which was enough to light up some of the LEDs we had on hand — albeit dimly!

Conclusion — Electricity is the MOVEMENT of electrons.

We also learned that these electrons move VERY slowly... like the minute hand on a clock, but their 'effect' happens at almost the speed of light!!