Our Group: Cheuk Sheung Kwan (2A)

Ng Chu Him (2A)

Tsang Wing Him (2B)
Date: 21st July 2003
Venue: I.S. Laboratory, La Salle College

1. Background of investigation

2. Research

3. Report of the experiment

4. Record of results

5. Conclusion

6. Reflection and self-evaluation

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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
 After the Industrial revolution, the world trade
developed and the need of fine goods increase. The
use of electricity also increase a lot to propel the
machines and cars… If the supply of electricity is not
stable, people had to find other ways to produce
electricity.
At 1800 A.D., an Italian Physicist called
Alessandro Volta used a piece of cloth that with some
dilute sulphuric acid and then put a slice of copper and
zinc at each side to form the positive and negative
terminal respectively.
Nowadays, few people use fruit to produce
electricity because the current is small, they are large
in size and not convenience.
In this experiment, we are going to find about
the electricity that the fruit produce.

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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
The concept of fruit battery

There are citric acid and tartaric acid in the fruit. They
are electrolyte. When the fruit is connected to copper and zinc,
copper will become the positive terminal. This is because zinc
has a higher ionisation than copper. Zinc will emit an electron in
the dilute sulphuric acid, which further changes into ion. But,
copper doesn’t have this process.

The arrangement of the metal with different

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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
ionisation

1. Potassium (鉀)
2. Calcium (鈣)
3. Sodium (鈉)
4. Magnesium (鎂)
5. Aluminium (鋁)
6. Zinc (鋅)
7. Chromium (鉻)
8. Iron (鐵)
9. Cadmium (鎘)
10.Cobalt
10.Cobalt (鈷)
11. Nickel (鎳)
12. Tin (錫)
13.Lead
13.Lead (鉛)
14.Hydrogen
14.Hydrogen (氫)
15.Copper
15.Copper (銅)
16. Mercury (水銀)
水銀)
17.Silver
17.Silver (銀)
18. Gold (金)
The arrangement is according to the different ionisation from
higher to lower.

Investigation question

In the experiment, we are going to find out the voltage

and ampere that the fruit produce and the difference between
each kind of fruit.

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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
Hypothesis

Our prediction is that the more the fruit that connected

in the circuit, the greater the voltage and ampere of the electric
current. That is because in our last school year, we often came
across the use of electricity.

Variables

I. The independent variables

1. The number of different fruit
2. The type of fruit

II. The dependent variables

1. The electric current that the fruit produce
2. The light bulb will be light up or not

III. Variables that will be kept constant

1. The connecting wires
2. The cleanness of the knife which makes the
wounds on the fruit
3. Type of the apparatus (e.g. voltmeter or computer)
4. Method of measuring results
5. The type of the positive and negative metal
terminals
6. The size of the metal terminals

List of apparatus and materials

Materials Apparatus
5 oranges 1 voltmeter
1 pear 1 ammeter
2 lemons 1 computer
8 pieces of zinc 1 data collector
8 pieces of copper Connecting wires
20 metal clips
1 knife
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
 10 plastic holders

Procedure

1. Prepare the materials and apparatus

listed.
2. Turn on the computer and connect
the data collector to it.
3. Use a knife to make a wound on each side of the fruit.
4. Put a piece of zinc and copper on the wound respectively
on the fruit.
5. Put the metal clips on the connecting wires and then use
the clip to hold the
terminal.
6. The two ends of the
connecting wires
should be connected to
the positive terminal of
one fruit to negative
terminal of one
another.
7. If you want to measure the size of the electric current,
connect the fruit to an ammeter. But if you connect the
fruit to a voltmeter, the voltage will be measured.
8. When the connecting of fruit and devices has been
finished, record the result.

Amount of fruit The results

1 orange 0.967 V
2 oranges 1.982 V
3 oranges 2.920 V

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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
 4 oranges 3.858 V
5 oranges 4.815 V
1 pear 0.942 V
1 pear + 5 oranges 5.737 V
2 lemons + 1 pear + 5 oranges 7.549 V
1 lemon 250 µA
2 lemons + 1 pear + 5 oranges 240 µA

The voltage will be larger if there are more fruit. But the
electric current did not rise as the number of fruit increase. For
example, the voltage of 5 oranges is approximately 5 times than
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
just one and the voltage of pear with 5 orange, they are nearly
the sum of each measurement of them. But according to the
result, the electric current of many fruit even not greater than a
lemon. This tells us that the amount of fruit is not the main
factor to determine whether the electric current is high or not.
At the other hand, the number of fruit is the main reason that
affects the voltage that they produce.

Cheuk Sheung Kwan:

As I am the first time to do this kind of experiment and
not greatly related to our school syllabus, I am very curious in
that. I am wonder such fruit can be seen everywhere and they
can be used as a power source. Connect some fruits together
and the electricity was even greater than a dry cell, which
surprised all of us. I am quite enjoying this experience and hope
there will be more coming.

Ng Chu Him:
This is quite an interesting experiment. I haven’t even
heard of using fruit to produce electricity. Despite my absence in
the lab activity, I have tried hard to cooperate with my partners,
and began brainstorming. I also have an enormous curiosity in
why 1 lemon can “win” the other fruit by comparing electric
current. I am looking forward to finding the solution and more
relevant experiments for us to conduct.

Tsang Wing Him:

I like to do this project because it’s interesting. It’s
amazing that fruit can be used to conduct electricity. Also, I can
hardly think that the electric current of a lemon is even greater
than 8 fruit together!!!
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members