Chemistry Commons^™

Observations On Lemon Cells, Jerry Goodisman

Chemistry - All Scholarship

In many general chemistry texts (1), the electrochemistry chapter is introduced with a picture of a “lemon cell”, leads of Zn and Cu piercing a lemon (or sometimes a grapefruit). A voltmeter connected across them shows a potential of about 1 V. (It has been shown how several fruits connected in series can be used to run a calculator [2].) The texts then discuss oxidation–reduction, half-cells, and the rest of what we teach freshmen about electrochemistry, and the lemon is never mentioned again.

It would appear to be questionable scientific pedagogy to present something, even something …