Lemon Charger Dilemma

Thread Starter

CastleXman

Joined May 17, 2021
3
Hello All, Im wondering if Someone could help me with a science experiment I'm doing with my son. He's doing a new twist on the classic Lemon battery experiment. He's trying to see if we can figure out how many Lemons it would take to charge an iPad. Everything I can find says it would take 5.1 volts and 10 watts to charge. Heres my problem. We are finding that adding lemons to a circuit in series will boost the voltage by about .9 volts per lemon. giving us enough voltage after 6 lemons. but we only get .2mA of current no matter how many we add. In Parallel, I can add an extra .2 mA in current but the volts remain at .9v no matter how many lemons we add in parallel. My question is, Is there a scenario, or some kind of series/parallel way of wiring that would eventually allow us to achieve enough Voltage and Current to power the iPad. Thanks in advance for any help!!
 

Bernard

Joined Aug 7, 2008
5,784
At the bottom of this post is Similar Threads, read Lemon Battery Experiment.
You could use a stack of alternating Zn & Cu squares seperated by paper toweling soaked in lemon juice? Where to find Zn sheet metal??
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,674
10W/5.1V= 1.96A.
1.96A/0.2mA= 9800. Maybe you wrongly measured the shorted max current.
0.9V x 6= 5.4V which will drop when it is loaded.
Then you need 9800 x 6= 58,800 lemons or more if the voltage drops too much.
 

Thread Starter

CastleXman

Joined May 17, 2021
3
10W/5.1V= 1.96A.
1.96A/0.2mA= 9800. Maybe you wrongly measured the shorted max current.
0.9V x 6= 5.4V which will drop when it is loaded.
Then you need 9800 x 6= 58,800 lemons or more if the voltage drops too much.
Thanks!! But would there be a specific way I would have to wire it? Because if our results remained consistent, even 9800 lemons in parallel wouldn’t have voltage above .9 volts. Are you thinking I would need 6 sets of 9800 lemons wired in parallel and then wire all of those together in series?
 

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
Be realistic: pieces of lemons is the key.

Someone showed on the Web, audio equipment in a car fed by a power supply consisting of a huge number of cells with squares portions of lemons properly connected to get voltage/current for it to work.

BTW, I recall seen in NOLA, a big LCD clock running on a single potato.
Had I to do something like this I would go the potato way; much easier to handle.
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,674
Yeah, the current was probably measured when the "battery" was shorted. Then 10 times more lemons are needed for a total of
a little more than half a million. It is a silly project.
 
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