The lemon experiment is one of the most
well-known science experiment of all
time. You've seen videos of it and maybe
even try it yourself
the experiment usually shows a lemon at
the battery which is amazing enough, but
it can even be used to create fire!
Does that mean fire and electricity are
secretly hiding in lemons and we're
exposing ourselves to dangerous chemical
reactions and nobody knows it
let's take a closer look and see what's
going on and how it really works in a
typical lemon experiment you need a
lemon copper zinc and electrical wires
to connect them together the copper can
come from anything made out of copper
like copper wires and the zinc can come
from galvanized nails galvanized nails
are a special type of nail which are
coated with zinc to make them durable
here's how the magic happens
the acid in lemon juice creates a
chemical reaction and the nail starts to
oxidize breaking apart electrons from
the zinc positively charged zinc ions
which are now separated because of the
chemical reaction move into the lemon
and the resulting electrons need
somewhere to go
so they charge into the nail and then
rush across the wire to reach the copper
end the electrons move towards copper as
it naturally attracts electrons more
than zinc it's this flow of electrons
that creates electricity which can also
be used to start a fire
now the electrons in the copper start
attracting protons in the lemon juice
which creates hydrogen gas, really tiny
bubbles are being formed during this
exchange if you were to look really
close! As we've seen here thankfully
lemons are not secretly hiding fire or
electricity within them so they're safe,
but lemon juice is highly acidic and too
much of it can dissolve and damaged
teeth. So what's really happening here is
a chemical reaction caused by the copper
wire and the nail which generates
electricity and even fire if set up
correctly the lemon juice simply opens
the door for this chemical reaction to
happen.
If you need more power you can just push
in more copper wire and galvanized nails
and connect them together, as long as
there's enough space you can keep
plugging in copper and nails and extract
more energy from that lemon, you can even
add more lemons! ...and here's a fun fact
you're not restricted to just lemons, any
citrus fruits like oranges grapefruits
and even potatoes can be used as long as
it has acid
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comments or suggestions below have fun
experimenting :)
