INVESTIGATION OF ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY, CONDUCTIVITY, AND PERMITIVITY OF APPLE, ENGLISH PEAR, AND SWEET MELON

• Investigation of electrical conductivity, resistivity, and permittivity of apple, English pear, and sweet melon was measured using multimeter, crocodile clip, copper and zinc diode and LCD. The objectives of this study are; to determine the electrical properties of three fruits (apple, English pear, and sweet melon) by measuring their electrical resistivity, conductivity, and permittivity. The electrical conductivity readings of the fruits were 3.2595x10-3(Ωm)-1, 5.81395x10-3(Ωm)-1 and 8.07×10-3(Ωm)-1 for Sweet melon, English pear and Apple respectively. The electrical resistivity readings were measured to be 303.999Ωm,172Ωm and 123.9129Ωm for Sweet melon, English pear and Apple respectively. The permittivity values for each sample were calculated to be 6.641x 10-10 for sweet melon, 5.046×10-10 for English pear and 5.046 x10-10 for apple respectively. The result showed significant variations in electrical conductivity, resistivity, and permittivity among the three fruits. It can be deduced that apple has the highest conductive medium and therefore allows the follow of charges among the samples, suggesting that it contains a significant amount of ions electrolytes such as acids. In general, the study revealed that fruits conduct electricity. It also revealed that the higher the electrical conductivity of a sample, the lower the electrical resistivity and vice versa. The results also revealed that the permittivity of apple and english pear is the same as a result of the same value of dielectric constant of the two fruits.