Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Process Control and Experiment Design for Engineers

Generating Light from Lemon

Done by: Shalom Abebaw GSR/6781/14

Submitted to: Dr. Ing Wondwossen Bogale

Date: 12/03/2021
Contents
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5
What is light? ................................................................................................................................................ 6
How can man made light be produced? ....................................................................................................... 6
How can a lemon act as a battery? ............................................................................................................... 7
Steps to construct a lemon battery light .................................................................................................... 10
The science behind the Light in the LED/Light Bulb.................................................................................... 11
References .................................................................................................................................................. 12
Table of Figures
Figure 1 ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 2 ......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 3 ......................................................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 4 ......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 5 ......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 6 ......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 7 ......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 8 ......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 9 ....................................................................................................................................................... 10
Acknowledgement
First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to Almighty God for giving me this opportunity. Next,
I'd want to express my gratitude to Dr. Ing Wondowssen Bogale, who provided us with the opportunity to
investigate and comprehend the principle and science of light generation. Last but not least, I'd like to
express my gratitude to everyone who helped me create this report.
Introduction
Light has been a significant phenomenon in human beings' lives for thousands of years. During the
prehistoric period, the Sun was the primary source of light during the day, and the Moon was the
primary source of light at night. Then man began to construct lights out of biofuels, eventually
progressing to the contemporary tungsten filament light, which was invented by Thomas Edison. Since
then, a slew of new inventions have emerged, each with a unique capacity and use. One disadvantage
of current light bulbs is that they use electricity generated mostly from the combustion of fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels contribute to global warming by releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere. Clean energy sources, often known as renewable energy, such as wind, hydro, biofuel, and
solar energy, are currently being used around the world. This article explains how to make light with
lemons that are readily available in our homes, as well as the science behind it.

Figure 1
What is light?
Light, often known as visible light, is electromagnetic radiation that falls within the region of the
electromagnetic spectrum that the human eye can perceive. Between the infrared (with longer
wavelengths) and the ultraviolet (with shorter wavelengths), visible light is characterized as having
wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometers (nm) with shorter wavelengths (Wikipedia, 2021).

Figure 2

How can man made light be produced?

The first contemporary man made light was invented by Thomas Edison, when he passed electricity
through a thin platinum filament in the glass vacuum bulb, which delayed filament from melting
(Edison's Light Bulb, n.d.).

Current would flow across the tungsten filament's wires, with electrons passing from one wire to the
other and producing current.

The filament will be heated and glow when current runs through it, but it will not melt because the
voltage is regulated to avoid damaging the wire.

Figure 3
The secret is to run electricity down a wire and heat up the filament to generate light that ranges from
faint to bright.

This article will focus on the current source for the light bulb or LED (for low voltage requirements), and I
will be using a natural lemon as a battery to generate voltage.

How can a lemon act as a battery?

Batteries are chemical energy storage systems that convert chemical energy to electrical energy.

A battery's basic premise is that it contains an electrolyte that allows current to flow from one electrode
to the other.

Simply said, current is the flow of electrons through a wire.

If we connect one electrode to an electrolyte, electrons will move through these electrolytes to the
other electrode, and the voltage amount will vary based on the nature of the electrolyte and the
potential difference.

Citric acid, a natural chemical found in lemons, serves as an electrolyte, transferring electrons from one
location to another.
The materials we will need to light up a bulb using a lemon is:

1. Lemon

Figure 4

2. Copper Wire

Figure 5

3. Copper Nail or galvanized zinc nail.

Figure 6
 4. LED or Incandescent Light Bulb

Figure 7

5. Multimeter

Figure 8
 6. Clippers

Figure 9

Steps to construct a lemon battery light

Step 1- Prepare the lemon
- We will need about 4 to 6 lemons to light up an LED
- We have to make sure the lemon has enough juices inside by rolling it in our hands.

Step – 2 Connect the copper wire and the Nail through the lemon without each of them
touching each other
- We will strip some inches of the copper wire and insert it into the lemon. We’ll do the same
thing thing for the nail. We have to make sure that the copper wire and the Nail does not touch
each other.

Step – 3 extend a wire from the copper wire and the nail to connect with the LED
- Extend a wire from the copper wire and wrap up another wire on the tip of the nail’s head and
extend it so as to connect them to the LED.

Step -4 Clip the extended wire from both ends of the nail and copper wire to the LED support
wire.
- Make sure the wires of the nail and copper wire in contact with the LED

Step – 5 LED will light up

- If we made all the right connections, we will see a small light emitted from the LED.
The science behind the Light in the LED/Light Bulb
What happens when the LED lights up is usually no different than the ordinary light bulb operation.

We know that the nail is negatively charged so electrons will want to move out from the nail, and they
do so via the electrolyte to the positively charged copper wire. Since the copper wire and the nail are
connected to the LED, we have automatically formed a closed circuit. Which means current will flow
from the copper wire past the LED and onto the negatively charged nail and this process continues until
the electrolyte in the lemon are fully used. Then we can say that the battery has died.

We can increase the light of the LED or light bulb by including more lemons and nails as well as copper
wire. From previous physics and chemistry lessons we learned that an electrical circuit connected in
series will have higher voltage. Which results in an increased current flow and therefore the LED or light
bulb will light up brighter. However, we should take care so as not to increase the voltage very high as it
might destroy our LED. If we intend to use materials with higher voltages, then we should include a
resistor in our circuit which will regulate the current flow.
References

1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light
2. Edison’s Light Bulb https://www.fi.edu/history-resources/edisons-lightbulb