Lemon power
You can put your own \”package” of chemicals together to make a battery.
A tiny magnet—a compass needle—will show you when the electric
current is flowing.
Ask a grown-up to use the knife to scrape about an inch (2.5
centimeters) of the covering from each end of the bell wire and all of
the covering from the heavy wire. Beginning about a foot (30 cm) from
one end, wrap twenty turns of wire around the compass.
Twist one of the bare ends of wire around the galvanized nail, just
below the head. Twist the other end around the end of the heavy copper
wire.
Squeeze or pound the lemon hard enough to break up some of the pulp
inside. (Don’t break the skin.) Then push the nail and the copper wire
into the lemon, about an inch (2.5 cm) apart.
Watch the compass needle. Does it move? If it does, your lemon battery
is making an electric current—and the current pushing through the
wires around the compass is what makes the needle swing.
Materials
bell wire (6 feet; 1.8 meters)
compass
heavy copper wire (No. 14,
2 inches; 5 centimeters)
knife
lemon
nail (galvanized)
