Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am doing the "Electrolyte Challenge: Orange Juice Vs. Sports Drink" Science Experiment. On the Procedure Tab, under Measuring the Conductance, Step #8 it says
- Record the current. Again, make sure you record the correct units. Since your multimeter dial is set to 200m, this reading is in milliamps (mA), not microamps (μA). It says the Multimeter needs to be set to 200m when testing tap water, Orange Juice, and sports drinks.

I know/am about 65% sure that pickle juice has a higher electric current than Orange juice, tap water, or sports drinks. I am worried It might be too much power to be at 200m when I test pickle juice. What should I set my Multimeter at?

Hi -

In general, if you are unsure how much current you will be measuring when using a multimeter, it is safest to start out with the 10A dial setting for current. You also need to move the red multimeter probe to the 10A port to use this setting. This will allow you to safely measure currents up to 10 amps, as opposed to 200 milliamps.

However, in this case, even if pickle juice has more electrolytes than orange juice or sports drinks, I doubt that it is tens or hundreds of times higher. So you should be able to safely measure it with the dial at 200m, like you did for the other drinks.

Hope that helps!

-Ben