10 Chem Citrus Battery Lab Report

Citrus Battery Question What metals are required to make a citrus fruit battery? Hypothesis If I add zinc strips and copper wire together and insert them into the lime, then the diode will light up. I think this because the ATP energy from the fruit will conduct through both metals and light up the diode. Experimental Design Control

Experimental

Experimental

Experimental

Experimental

Group

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

1 Lime

1 Lime

1 Lime

2 Alligator Clips

2 Alligator Clips

2 Alligator Clips 2 Alligator Clips

2 Alligator Clips

1 Zinc Strip

1 Lead Strip

1 Magnesium Strip 1 piece of Tin

1 piece of nickel

Copper Wire Diodes

Copper Wire

1 Lime

Copper Wire

Diodes

Diodes

1 Lime

Copper Wire

Copper Wire

Diodes

Diodes

Manipulated Variable: Type of metal strips Responding Variable: The brightness of light in the diode Controlled Variable: The copper wire, the lime, the alligator clips, the types of diodes ECC: No metal Trials: Twice per each strip of metal Procedure 1. Collect all the needed materials. 2. Insert the zinc strip and copper wire into the lime.

3. Attach the alligator clips from copper to diode and zinc to diode. 4. See if the diode lights up. 5. Record how bright the diode is or if there is any light at all. 6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 with lead, magnesium, tin, and nickel. 7. Repeat entire procedure twice for each type of metal to ensure the validity of its results. Data Types of Metals

Diode Light

Zinc and Copper

No

Lead and Copper

No

Magnesium and Copper

No

Tin and Copper

No

Nickel and Copper

No

The graph shows no relationship between the types of metals used and the amount of light created. Interpretation and Conclusion In conclusion, my hypothesis was not supported and not contradicted. My conclusion cannot be supported with high and low data points because no light was created from any of the metal combinations. This means that we had many sources of errors. One source of error is that we didn’t use enough citrus fruits, since we didn’t use more than 1 citrus fruit not enough energy could be generated to light one diode. Also, we could’ve used a diode with too high of a energy requirement, if we used a smaller diode than less fruit energy would be required to make it light up. Also, since we used zinc strips instead of zinc coated nails this could’ve affected our experiment because it’s recommended that zinc nails and copper be

used together instead of zinc strips. Lastly, the positive and negative ends of the alligator clips could’ve been connected the wrong way to the positive and negative ends of the diode, this would affect if the diode’s ability to light up.