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1. Background of investigation
2. Research
4. Record of results
5. Conclusion
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
After the Industrial revolution, the world trade
developed and the need of fine goods increase. The
use of electricity also increase a lot to propel the
machines and cars… If the supply of electricity is not
stable, people had to find other ways to produce
electricity.
At 1800 A.D., an Italian Physicist called
Alessandro Volta used a piece of cloth that with some
dilute sulphuric acid and then put a slice of copper and
zinc at each side to form the positive and negative
terminal respectively.
Nowadays, few people use fruit to produce
electricity because the current is small, they are large
in size and not convenience.
In this experiment, we are going to find about
the electricity that the fruit produce.
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
The concept of fruit battery
There are citric acid and tartaric acid in the fruit. They
are electrolyte. When the fruit is connected to copper and zinc,
copper will become the positive terminal. This is because zinc
has a higher ionisation than copper. Zinc will emit an electron in
the dilute sulphuric acid, which further changes into ion. But,
copper doesn’t have this process.
1. Potassium (鉀)
2. Calcium (鈣)
3. Sodium (鈉)
4. Magnesium (鎂)
5. Aluminium (鋁)
6. Zinc (鋅)
7. Chromium (鉻)
8. Iron (鐵)
9. Cadmium (鎘)
10.Cobalt
10.Cobalt (鈷)
11. Nickel (鎳)
12. Tin (錫)
13.Lead
13.Lead (鉛)
14.Hydrogen
14.Hydrogen (氫)
15.Copper
15.Copper (銅)
16. Mercury (水銀)
水銀)
17.Silver
17.Silver (銀)
18. Gold (金)
The arrangement is according to the different ionisation from
higher to lower.
Investigation question
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
Hypothesis
Variables
Materials Apparatus
5 oranges 1 voltmeter
1 pear 1 ammeter
2 lemons 1 computer
8 pieces of zinc 1 data collector
8 pieces of copper Connecting wires
20 metal clips
1 knife
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
10 plastic holders
Procedure
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
4 oranges 3.858 V
5 oranges 4.815 V
1 pear 0.942 V
1 pear + 5 oranges 5.737 V
2 lemons + 1 pear + 5 oranges 7.549 V
1 lemon 250 µA
2 lemons + 1 pear + 5 oranges 240 µA
The voltage will be larger if there are more fruit. But the
electric current did not rise as the number of fruit increase. For
example, the voltage of 5 oranges is approximately 5 times than
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MSA Investigation in Fruit battery Cheuk Sheung Kwan and his group members
just one and the voltage of pear with 5 orange, they are nearly
the sum of each measurement of them. But according to the
result, the electric current of many fruit even not greater than a
lemon. This tells us that the amount of fruit is not the main
factor to determine whether the electric current is high or not.
At the other hand, the number of fruit is the main reason that
affects the voltage that they produce.
Ng Chu Him:
This is quite an interesting experiment. I haven’t even
heard of using fruit to produce electricity. Despite my absence in
the lab activity, I have tried hard to cooperate with my partners,
and began brainstorming. I also have an enormous curiosity in
why 1 lemon can “win” the other fruit by comparing electric
current. I am looking forward to finding the solution and more
relevant experiments for us to conduct.