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Ask me! No?

Make a lemon juice Battery

* ...and commit an illegal act. Says who? Says the Central Electricity Act of India 1948! According to this act individuals, communities and organisations cannot generate or distribute their own electricity in India.

  How does it work?

In your lemon battery, the electrons are conducted from one metal to the other through the juice, which acts as the electrolyte. The zinc plate is the negative electrode (-) of the battery and the copper is the positive electrode (+). This is an example of a wet cell. The ones that you use in your gadgets are dry cell batteries which use a powdered electrolyte, and which have a higher voltage.
Materials
• A nice juicy lemon
• A plate of zinc and a plate of copper (coins, nails of the same will do, if neither are available, then you can also proceed with two different metals like an aluminum foil and steel
• Electrical alligator clips
• An electric meter

Method

• Stick the zinc plate on one side of the lemon and the copper one on the other side. (Note, the two shouldn't touch) Your battery is ready for testing.

• Connect the clips to the meter and you will see that a faint current is passing through it.

you can also...

increase power of the battery you have made as it won't be powerful enough to light a bulb. You can take a number of lemons and connect them together, as shown in the figure. After that, connect them to an LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulb which consumes less electricity.

You can carry out this experiment using different metals and you'll see that different combinations produce different voltages.

To be attempted under adult supervision

Design your own green, clean vehicle

Get your designers hat on and start creating your ideal vehicle – car, bus, non-motorised, flying carpet...whatever. Remember the criteria is to create a ‘green’ transportion mode that is non-polluting, safe and emissions free.

You’ll need the creativity of a designer, the imagination of an inventor and the skills of an engineer. Send us your design of a futuristic vehicle, that you could be using in 2025 - drawings, explanations and all.

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