Measurement of DC Voltage and Current

By Matthew Trowbridge With Joseph Pate and Jared Gentry January 28, 2014

Objective: The purpose of lab 2, Measurement of DC Voltage and Current, was to familiarize students with the process of setting up circuits in series and parallel. In addition, lab 2 gave students experience measuring DC voltage, resistance, and current using a multimeter. Procedure: Students were given two circuit diagrams, one in series and parallel. Each circuit was to be constructed using a DC power supply, two resistance decade boxes, and a digital multimeter. The circuit diagram for the series and parallel circuits are below labeled Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively.

Figure 1: Series Circuit

Figure 2: Parallel Circuit Following the circuit diagram detailed in figure 1, the circuit was created using the aforementioned equipment. The voltage was measured across resistor 1 and resistor 2. The current was also measured across resistor 1 and resistor 2. These measurements are detailed in Table 2. The same process was completed for the parallel circuit. The circuit was constructed

according to the given circuit diagram and both voltage and resistance across resistor 1 and resistor 2 were measured. This data is listed in table 3. For both circuit diagrams, the theoretical resistance and current across each resistor were calculated. These calculated values were checked for accuracy using established relationships. Theory: Voltage and current are not calculated the same way in a series circuit as they are in a parallel circuit. The following table details the relevant equations. Voltage Series V=I*R I=I1=I2=In Parallel V=V1=V2=Vn

Current Other Relationships

In=V/Rn Or Itotal=V(1/R1+1/R2+.1/Rn) Equation 1: I=E/(R1+R2) Equation 3: I = 1 + 1 Equation 2: E=V1+V2 E R1 R2 Table 1

It can be seen that the voltage and current are calculated in a different way depending on if the circuit is series or parallel. For instance, voltage in a series circuit can be calculated using Ohms law, voltage equals current times resistance. The voltage in a parallel circuit is equal across all resistors, that is, the initial voltage (E) is equal to the voltage across resistor 1 and resistor 2. The same is true for current. In a series circuit, the current at each resistor is equal to the initial current. In a parallel circuit, current must be solved by rearranging Ohms law. The Other Relationships equations relate voltage, current, and resistance. These relationships can be tested by gathering experimental data of the current and resistance at each resistor. Data:

Theoretical Experimental V1 2.48 V 2.49 V V2 7.50 V 7.55 V Vtotal 9.98 V 10.0 V Itotal 75 75.01 Table 2: Experimental and theoretical data for Series Circuit

Theoretical Experimental Vtotal 10.0 V 10.0 V I1 0.303 mA 0.302 mA I2 0.100 mA 0.100 mA Itotal 0.403 mA 0.402 mA Figure 3: Voltage and Current for the Parallel Circuit Observations: One of the fundamental laws of electrical engineering is Ohms Law, V=IR. Plugging in experimental values from the series circuit, the theoretical voltage and the measured voltage are equal. The same is true for parallel. When the experimental data gathered from the parallel circuit are plugged into Ohms law, the given value is the same as the theoretical value. Three equations were given to be checked. Equation 1 was satisfied by the experimental data. The voltage provided by the power source (10.0 V) was equal to the voltage across both resistors (2.49 V and 7.55 V). Equation was also proven to be correct. The current derived from equation 2 is equal to the current derived from Ohms Law at each resistor. Equation 3 was also proven to be valid. The current divided by initial voltage (.4 ) was equal to the inverse of resistance 1 plus resistance 2 (.4 ). The experimental data recovered was as expected and agreed with the given relationships. Conclusions: The data retrieved agreed with Ohms Law and the given equations. The provided equipment is very accurate, resulting in less than 1% error for all calculations. Voltage, current, and resistance can be related in many ways. The voltage and current may not necessarily be equal at each resistor, depending on the type of circuit; series or parallel. Care must be taken to avoid unnecessary mistakes when more complicated circuits are constructed.