Lemon battery

A drawing showing three lemons and a glowing red object (the LED). The LED has two lines coming out of its bottom to represent its electrical leads. Each lemon has two metal pieces stuck into it; the metals are colored differently. There are thin black lines, representing wires, connecting the metal pieces stuck into each lemon and the leads of the LED.
Diagram showing three lemon cells wired together so that they energize the red light-emitting diode (LED) at the top. Each individual lemon has a zinc electrode and a copper electrode inserted into it; the zinc is colored gray in the diagram. The slender lines drawn between the electrodes and the LED represent the wires.

A lemon battery is a simple battery often made for the purpose of education. Typically, a piece of zinc metal (such as a galvanized nail) and a piece of copper (such as a penny) are inserted into a lemon and connected by wires. Power generated by reaction of the metals is used to power a small device such as a light-emitting diode (LED).

The lemon battery is similar to the first electrical battery invented in 1800 by Alessandro Volta, who used brine (salt water) instead of lemon juice.[1] The lemon battery illustrates the type of chemical reaction (oxidation-reduction) that occurs in batteries.[2][3][4] The zinc and copper are called the electrodes, and the juice inside the lemon is called the electrolyte. There are many variations of the lemon cell that use different fruits (or liquids) as electrolytes and metals other than zinc and copper as electrodes.

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