Re: Electricity in produce

Can you please tell me how to measure electricity in Fruits and Vegetables.

The reason for this is that there is no electricity in any fruit or vegetable (in the sense that they are like little batteries). Perhaps you are confused by the fact that you can use the chemical properties of certain fruits and vegetables to generate electricity.

A lemon, for example, can be made to power a small electrical device because the lemon is quite acidic (for a food). The way you do this is to stick a piece of zinc metal and a piece of copper metal (a zinc electrode and a copper electrode) into the lemon. You can then draw electrical power from the lemon through an external circuit and do work. (I am told that a lemon cell is about equivalent to a single calculator battery.)

Here's the chemistry behind the lemon cell: zinc is an active metal and will react readily with acid; acid's active ingredient is positively-charged hydrogen. So a transfer of electrons takes place between the zinc and the acid; the zinc (Zn⁰) is oxidized to Zn⁺⁺ and the acid (H⁺) is reduced to hydrogen gas (H₂), which you can see bubbling out around the electrodes.

Of course, this will happen whether or not you have a copper electrode present, but you need the copper electrode to draw power from the lemon cell; the copper helps channel the electrons through the external circuit. This sort of cell will work for any fruit or vegetable with some acid content; lemons are best simply because they're more acidic than any other food.