Question: Can a watermelon charge an i phone? Does the melon have electricity? Francis St CBS Dublin

Michael Nolan answered on 14 Nov 2013:

You can buy kits where you get some metal strips (called electrodes) and a light bulb and you stick the electrodes into different fruits and the light bulk lights up. Things like lemons, apples, oranges are well known.

What happens is that electrons from one electrode are attracted to the other metal electrode and they pass through the liquid in the fruit (called an electrolyte, something that allows electrons to pass but does not consume them). Different fruits behave differently as electrolytes.

So, to give an answer, you could in principle charge an iphone with a melon, but you should first check other fruits and then rank them. I think a lemon works the best.

The melon does not have electricity – you need the metal electrodes to provide the electrons that make electric current. The fruit provides a pathway for the electrons.

M