electrolytes and conductivity lab

Today in chemistry, we used pennies, a vinegar-water-salt solution, matboard to construct a battery to power an LED light. We started by first collecting five pennies and shaved the copper off of the tails side. We then created a vinegar/salt solution in which we dipped the matboard into. To construct our battery, we would place a penny shaved side up, then place a soaked piece of matboard on top of it. Finally we placed an unshaven intact penny at the top of the stack and place an LED on each end of our battery. Our end result lit up, causing us to then question the factors that caused this. for example, we placed more pennies onto the battery which ultimately made the LED light up brighter. In this lab I think that the solution soaked onto the matboard was a source of chemical energy and conductivity through acetic acid, sodium, chloride, and water, which was converted into an electrical current and passed through the pennies zinc and copper makeup, then finally through the leads of the LED. The electrolyte present was the sodium chloride + water, solution.