Fruit+Electricity!

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Title
Fruit Electricity!

Problem Scenario
Say that the world was ending and society was falling apart and all you have left is fruit, like an orange. You could power your house with these. Or even if you needed just enough power to charge your cell phone then this could save your life!

Broad Question
How much electricity is made by different fruits?

Specific Question
How much electricity is made out of green apples,lemons,oranges,and grapefruit?

Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that the size of the fruit will affect how much electricity is given, the smaller the fruit the more electricity it will produce. Also the acidity of the fruit will affect how many volts it produces.

Independent Variable:
The type of fruit

Dependent Variable:
Electricity (measured in volts)

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
Use the same meter for each test test for the same duration probes at same distance apart in each fruit

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
Volt- The SI unit of potential difference and electromotive force, formally defined to be the difference of electric potential between two points of a conductor carrying a constant current of one ampere, when the power dissipated between these points is equal to one watt Voltage Meter-

General Plan
For this experiment which will take place at my house, does not involve much. All it needs is an apple, grapefruit, lemon, and orange. I had 5 of each. You also need a voltage meter some sort of copper and zinc. Then you insert the copper and zinc into the fruit and touch the two metal ends from the voltage meter to the copper and zinc peices. Then read the amount of voltage the meter says.

Pote
Don't worry about the exact specifics here. Just focus on the big picture. In general what are you going to do? This step will help you to plan your time and get the project done. Here are some things to consider:
 * Where will you conduct this experiment? If not at school where are you going to put your experiment so that it doesn't bother anyone, you can assure it won't be disrupted by pets or babies, and it will be safe from changes in temperature or movement?
 * What will you actually be doing? For example, measuring something, timing something...
 * What are some potential problems you may encounter and how will you solve them?
 * What are the safety and environmental concerns?

Initial Problems And Solutions
The fruit juice went every where, and it got on the voltage meter slowing it down.

Safety Or Environmental Concern
I did not come across any safety concerns and there is no environmental concerns.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial: 4
=== When data will be collected: It will be collected after each fruit is tested. ===

Number of Observations: 10
=== Where will data be collected?: It will be collected in my science journal and then transferred to my google docs then to my science fair wiki. ===

Resources and Budget Table

 * Item || Number needed || Where I will get this || Cost ||
 * apples || 5 || supermarket || 5.00 ||
 * lemons || 5 || supermarket || 4.00 ||
 * grapefruits || 5 || supermarket || 5.00 ||
 * oranges || 5 || supermarket || 4.50 ||
 * voltage meter || 1 || already had || 0.00 ||

Detailed Procedure
Step 1. The first step will be to get all of the supplies. Get at least 4 different fruits. This one will use 5 lemons, 5 green apples, 5 oranges and 5 grapefruits. This project will also need a voltage meter, alligator clips, copper wire, zinc (galvanized nails), paper, a pencil to keep track, and a knife to make it easier to insert the copper wire and zinc into the fruit..

Step 2. After all the supplies are collected take out one of each kind of citrus fruits and squeeze the pieces of fruit firmly enough to soften them on the inside, but do not break the skin of the fruit.

Step 3. Insert both the zinc and the copper wire into the fruit a couple of inches apart. Make sure the ends are not touching inside the fruit and that the ends have not gone all the way through the other side of the fruit.

Step 4. Take one alligator clip and connect it from the voltage meter to the nail or wire. Do this to each the nail and the wire in the piece of fruit.

Step 5. Observe and record the information, see what happens, and also record how many volts it gives off.

Step 6. Remove nail and wire, then clean the materials, repeat the process over again with a different fruit. ( You will have to repeat this multiple times with each kind of fruit.) Record the results each time.

Step 7. Clean up the area and throw the fruit away.

Results
When you put the copper and zinc in the fruit and touch the probs to them, the voltage meter then shows how many volts that fruit produces.

Conclusion

 * The original purpose for this experiment was to see how much electricity can be produced by different types of fruits. Based on the information found for this experiment the smaller the fruit, the more electricity it will produce. This experiment will include lemon, grapefruit, orange, and apple. I hypothesized that the lemon will produce the most electricity. The experiment was conducted and the results show that the lemon had the most voltage. The orange produced the second most amount of voltage, the grapefruit the third highest amount of voltage and the green apple produced the least amount of voltage. Based on the data I found my hypothesis was correct. The lemon had an average of about 1.46 the orange came out with a mean of .913 the grapefruit **** had an average of .825 and the green apple a .75. **

Discussion
My hypothesis was that the smaller the fruit the voltage rate would be higher. Also that the more acidity in the fruit the more voltage it would produce.For the results I got, my hypothesis was correct. The results I collected was that the lemon produced the most amount of voltage. It also showed that the grapefruit produced the least amount of voltage. the orange came in second and the green apple in third. During my tests I did not see a lot of similar results unless it was on the same type of fruit. There is a connection between my dependent and independent variables. This connection would be that the fruit is what is making the electricity (volts). I think that my tests went rather well. I did not come across and experimental errors but there is still room for improvement. If I were to do this again I would test more types of fruit to see what their outcome would be.

Abstract
** Fruit Electricity  **


 * In case something were to happen to the world or you were to get lost in the middle of nowhere this might be a good thing to know. Making electricity from fruit could help you charge a cell phone battery enough to make a call for help. It is also a good environmentally safe way to make it too, although you may not want to do it for your house because that would waste a lot of fruit. **
 * For this experiment lemons, oranges, green apples and grapefruit were tested to see which fruit could make the most electricity. The fruit was hooked up to a voltage meter to record voltage. The lemon had the most electricity collected. During the tests it was also found that the green apple had the least amount of electricity produced. The tests also showed that the fruits with the most acidity produced the most amount of electricity. That was why the lemon had the highest amount of volts and the orange second best. **
 * Fruit electricity is something you could maybe use on a camping trip to keep your phone charged to a lamp going. This might be a good thing to know about just incase something were to actually happen. You can't necessarily use it on a daily basis but it is just a little tidbit of information just incase. **