Science With Food: Electric Food
Materials:
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Water
- Lemons
- Potatoes
- 2 Nickels
- 2 Galvanized Nails
- Small knife
- Multimeter
- Rubber gloves
- Materials from the 'What Conducts?'
Instructions:
1. Recreate the set up in the 'What Conducts?' experiment.
2. Put on rubber gloves.
3. Begin touching the two free alligator clips to various foods. In your first try, see if vinegar conducts. Try the multimeter on the vinegar as well. What voltage do you read?
4. See how well water conducts. Mix salt with water (about 3 teaspoons to one cup) and try to see
how well it conducts. Was there a difference?
5. Make incisions on the lemon and potato. Stick nickels into these incisions. On the other end of the lemon or potato, stick in the galvanized nail.
6. Use the nickel and nails as your connectors to the set‐up or the multimeter. Remember that the nickel is the positive charge and the nail is the negative charge. How well do these foods conduct? What voltage do they give?
A lot of the foods we eat can be good conductors of electricity. The vinegar and lemon are good conductors because of the acidity. Water is also a good conductor, but becomes a better conductor when salt is added because salt adds ionic bonds to the water solution. You'll be surprised what other foods around your home conducts electricity!
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