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Pete,

I've done this before, but it's been a while.

I believe that the lemon battery is not producing enough current to
light a light bulb.  Have you tried powering a small digital
clock/watch or an LED?

(I also agree that paperclips make a less than ideal electrode)

Do you have a digital meter to verify that the lemon battery is
producing enough voltage?  If not, you can usually get these pretty
inexpensively, and it's an easy way to find out if you have enough
juice. (no pun intended...)

Another thing we discovered is that surface area plays a key role in
current.  The more surface area, the faster the reaction takes place,
and the faster electrons are available to move around.  I still think
you'll need a bushel of lemons in parallel to light a light bulb.

Here is one website that lights up an LED:
http://www.hilaroad.com/camp/projects/lemon/lemon_battery.html

and although he doesn't talk about lemon batteries, He does show how to
power his "three penny radio" with a vinegar battery, and I can't
resist plugging this site, especially since you're from australia:

http://www.scitoys.com/

I'd love to hear how this works out for you!

Matthew Wenger
Flandrau Science Center
University of Arizona, Tucson






On Apr 7, 2004, at 11:40 PM, Pete Wheeler wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
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> I have been trying to put together an electronics dem using lemons,
> copper nails and steel paperclips as a power source, from websites I
> learnt you should be able to generate about half a volt per lemon, I
> had
> no luck trying to power a 1.5v light bulb with one, two, three or four
> lemons in series, can anyone help, has any one actually physically ever
> made this or similar dems work. Thanks
>
> Pete
>
> Pete Wheeler
> Kids' Science State Project Officer
> Scitech Discovery Centre
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