Electric Charge in Fruits and Vegetables
Purpose and Hypothesis:
Our purpose for this project was to find out what fruits and vegetables could generate an electric charge. We also wanted to find out which ones had the greatest and least charge. Our hypothesis stated that the potato would have the greatest charge.
The materials we used for this project were the fruits and vegetables and an amp meter to measure the current flow in them. We learned the difference between electrical charge and conductivity. We measured the electrical
charge first and the conductivity second. First, we looked for current flow in each of the fruits and vegetables using the micro amp scale on the meter. Second, we measured resistance in each of the fruits and vegetables using
the ohms scale on the meter. For the second procedure, we took measurements in the fruit or vegetable with the probes both close together and far apart, because we wanted to find out how much the resistance increases as you move them farther apart. Finally, we graphed and charted our findings.
Analysis of Data:
The fruit or vegetable that had the strongest current flow was definitely the lemon with 2 micro amps. The least was the red potato with 0 micro amps. In terms of the resistance measured in ohms, the potato had the highest resistance rating with the probes close together with 6.0 to 9.5 ohms. The smallest rating with the probes close together was the banana with a rating of 3.0 to 4.0 ohms. Far apart, the highest rating was the banana ranging from 28.0 to 30.0 ohms. The smallest rating with the probes far apart was the apple. It ranged from 10.0 to 19.0 ohms.
Summary and Conclusion:
What the data shows is that acidic fruits and vegetables seem to have a stronger current flow. For resistance, it seemed that the more water in the fruit or vegetable, the less the resistance rating. This is because water is a conductor. Our findings regarding our original hypothesis were totally different from what we thought would happen. What we found out from this project is that fruits and vegetables don’t have much electric charge. Obviously our hypothesis was rejected.
If our hypothesis had been accepted, we would have hoped to apply this knowledge in a way that couldallow us to use natural resources to produce electricity. But we discovered using fruits and vegetables directly would not be practical. Not one of these fruits or vegetables could power a small light bulb!