How to Make a Battery with a Lemon for a Science Project
The lemon battery is made of a lemon, a penny and a dime. Those are the only things you need to make a battery. It will not be a strong battery so don’t try to start a lawn mower with it but you will be able to feel a current running through the battery when you touch it with a wet finger or tongue.
To make a lemon battery take a lemon and roll it on a flat surface like a table or counter top. This rolling action will move the lemon’s juices around and activate the lemon. After you have rolled the lemon back and forth a few times take the lemon and make two short slots in the lemon that are horizontal to each other and about an half inch apart.
Then take a penny and put the penny into one of the slots so that most of the penny is above the surface of the lemon but a good portion of the penny is into the lemon.
Take a dime and put it into the other slot in the same way that you put the penny into the lemon. Make sure the coins are a half inch apart and horizontal to each other.
The lemon juice will now create a reaction to the two different types of metals and it will cause one coin to hold a positive charge and the other coin will have a negative charge.
If you take your tongue and put it on both of the coins at the same time you will feel a surge of power. It will be a small electrical charge that will not hurt you but you will feel a tingle on your tongue. If you wet your finger and place your finger on both coins at the same time you may also feel a charge on your finger.
Making a science project from a lemon can be fun and you can share it with the people around you. A lemon battery is easy to make and yet it will take some skill on your part to get the lemon to work with the coins.
