How to Make a Lemon Clock – Electricity Experiment for Kids

August 29, 2021
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Teach electricity for kids with this fun lemon clock project. In this lemon electricity experiment children will discover how acidic lemon juic conducts electricity. WOW your children with this lemon experiment is fun for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th graders. Keep reading to find out how to make a lemon clock at home!

Teach electricity for kids with this fun lemon clock project. In this lemon electricity experiment children will discover how acidic lemon juic conducts electricity. WOW your children with this lemon experiment is fun for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th graders. Keep reading to find out how to make a lemon clock at home!

Lemon clock

You don’t need a fancy kit to try this lemon clock experiment at home! We will show you hot to make a lemon clock with a couple of simple materials. This lemon experiment is sure to amaze your kids and help get them excited in science and learning how and why things work. This simple electricity experiment is perfect for preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4 students too.

Lemon electricity experiment

Lemon electricity experiment

All you need to try this project are a few simple materials or you can get a lemon clock kit.

  • 2 ripe lemons
  • low-voltage digital clock (one that takes one AA battery or a 1.5 volt button cell one)
  • one AA battery
  • 2 copper pennies (older the penny, pre-1982 when they were made with more copper the better)
  • three 8″ lengths of copper wire
  • 2 galvanized nails
  • knife
  • scissors
  • alligator clips (optional)

lemon experiment

How to make a lemon clock

Here is what you need to do with the three wires:

  1. Wrap one end of a wire around a penny and the other around the end of a nail. (These will be used to connect the lemons together.
  2. Connect a second wire to a penny and leave the other end bare.
  3. Wrap the third wire around a nail and leave the other end bare.

Connecting lemons with metal wires adds the voltage from each lemon. The more lemons you connect together, the higher the voltage.

How to make a lemon clock

Lemon experiment

Now roll the lemons on a hard surface, being careful not to break the skin. The reason we do this is it will loosen the pulp, make the lemons juicy and help the electrons move through the lemons.  Cut a slit in each lemon just large enough to insert the pennies.

How Does the Lemon Clock Work

Lemon clock experiment

Insert the penny connected to the wire in teh slit you made.

electricity experiment

Lemon clock science experiment

Insert the other end of the wire with the nail into the next lemon. If you are connecting more than two lemons for more voltage, do so by linking them together with more penny to nail connections. No on your first lemon attach the nail wrapped wire and empty other side to connect to the clock. On the last lemon in your chain insert the penny wraped wire with the empty wire on the other side to connect to the clock. Each lemon sould have only and exactly –  one penny and one lemon leading in/out of the circuit.

HINT: Make sure the copper wire has good contact with both the pennies and nails, and make sure the pennies and the nails make good contact with the lemon pulp and juice.

Fruit Clock experiment

Remove the battery from the clock. You don’t need this as you are going to power it with your lemon battery. Have an adult carefylly touch the wires to the positive and negative terminals in the clock. If your clock doesn’t work, try switching the wires.

So how does the lemon clock work? Well, when the copper pennies and zinc nails are inserted into the lemon, a chemical reaction takes place. The electrons move from the zinc plates to the copper plates to form a circuit wiht a current which activates the clock. The lemon juice helps to conduct electricity.

How does a lemon clock work

So how does the lemon clock work? Well, when the copper pennies and zinc nails are inserted into the lemon, a chemical reaction takes place. The electrons move from the zinc plates to the copper plates to form a circuit wiht a current which activates the clock. The lemon juice helps to conduct electricity.

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Easy Science Experiments

Beth Gorden is the creative multi-tasking creator of 123 Homeschool 4 Me. As a busy homeschooling mother of six, she strives to create hands-on learning activities and worksheets that kids will love to make learning FUN! With over 20 years educating children, she has created over 1 million pages of printables to help teach kids alphabet, math, science, English grammar, history, and so much more! Beth is also the creator of 2 additional sites with even more educational activities and FREE printables - www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com and www.preschoolplayandlearn.com. Beth studied at the University of Northwestern where she got a double major to make her effective at teaching children while making education FUN!

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