Be The Part of a Circuit!

 

EQUIPMENT:

1. A lemon battery from “A lemon is a battery !!! (An alternative power source!)”, including the copper wires connecting with the light bulb.
2. A knife

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Before connecting the copper wires to the light bulb, use the knife to cut lemon in half. One half should be left with the penny or copper plate and the other half with the galvanized nail or zinc plate.
2. Now leave each half of the lemon faced down on a non-conductive surface (ex - a table or paper sheet) and connect the copper wires to the bulb. See what happens. You can take note if you want.
3. While the wires still connecting with the bulb, take the lemon halves and place them on the palms of your hands faced down and see what happens. You can take note later if you wish.

RESULT:

1. When the lemon was cut in half and the halves are not touching each other, the light bulb will not light.
2. When you place the lemon halves on your palms faced down, the light bulb should light up.

EXPLANATIONS:

When the lemon is cut in half, the electrical circuit is also cut in half. So the electrical circuit is interrupted and electricity can’t flow through the circuit into the light bulb. Because of that, the light bulb won’t light up.

But when you place the lemon halves on the palms of your hands things changes. Your body then acts as a conductor and completes the circuit. This way your body becomes the part of a circuit.

MORE EXPLANATIONS:

In the previous experiment “A lemon is a battery !!! (An alternative power source!)”, if you have touched your tongue to the wires in the lemon you have felt a little bit of tingle. The tingle was from electricity being conducted through the tongue. The tissues of human body are capable of conducting electricity. So, when your body completes the circuit, electricity or electrons flow through your body tissues from one electrode to another. This way electricity can go into the light bulb and make it light!

MORE EXPERIMENTS FOR YOU:

• Use a normal dry cell battery instead of using the lemon battery.

[WARNING – Should not use battery higher than 3 volts for safety measures.]