Unconventional Switch - Team 3

 

For our Unconventional Switch, we chose to use a glass of lemonade as the switch. 

Lemon juice, and by proxy: lemonade, is a conductive fluid. This is due to the high amounts of citric acid it contains, which makes the water act as an electrolyte. In fact, one could use a lemon to make a whole battery and produce electricity. 

However, we were sufficient in just using it to simply transfer power from our own power source. The electricity comes in and out of the juice through alligator clips which connect it to the rest of the circuit. But to keep the clips dry from the corrosive juice, we used tinfoil to dip into the juice and carry the charge into it. The tinfoil is at different levels within the cup. Which means if enough juice is removed, usually by drinking out of the straw, then the circuit would be open and the LED wouldn’t be powered anymore. Adding juice back into the cup will close the circuit and restore power to the LED. A specifically plastic straw is used to remove juice from the cup, as you wouldn’t want to use a metal straw for charged lemonade. Since we used another straw to hold one of the tinfoil clumps, we call it Lemonade for Two!