Electrical Systems

LABORATORY TEST EQUIPMENT, BASIC DC

MEASUREMENTS AND OHMS LAW
OBJECTIVE
To effectively operate in a laboratory or an electrical/electronic industrial
environment engineers must be competent in the operation and use of
many types of test equipment. This experiment introduces the operation
and use various test instruments:

Dual DC Power Supply

Digital Multimeter
Bread Board

APPARATUS
Dual DC Power Supply: TENMA 72-7245 or TTI EL-R Series
Digital Multimeter:

TENMA 72-1016

Analogue Multimeter:

SANWA YX360TRF

Resistors: 330 , 820 , 1k , 1.8k ,

2.2k , 3.3M , 10M
Bread Board
THEORY

OHMS LAW

For many conductors of electricity, the electric current which will flow through them
is directly proportional to the voltage applied to them. When a microscopic view of
Ohm's law is taken, it is found to depend upon the fact that the drift velocity of
charges through the material is proportional to the electric field in the conductor. The
ratio of voltage to current is called the resistance, and if the ratio is constant over a
wide range of voltages, the material is said to be an "ohmic" material. If the material
can be characterized by such a resistance, then the current can be predicted from the
relationship:

V=IR
Voltage= Electrical current *Resistance

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Measuring Voltage and Current

To measure current through the resistor the ammeter is placed in series

with it. To measure the voltage drop across the resistor the voltmeter is
placed in parallel with it.

CIRCUITS
Ohms law

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Connect the circuit as shown in figure using the correct value of

resistance. Adjust the circuit voltage V to 2Vusing the DMM, then using the
second DMM, measure the current drawn from the supply. Repeat the
above measurements for output voltage steps from 2V to a maximum
voltage of 20V and tabulate them.
The voltage across the resistor and the current through the resistor can be
used to determine its resistance using Ohms Law in following form
V=RI

SUPPLY V

MEASURED CURRENT

0.0

0.00mA

CALCULATED
CURRENT
0.00mA

2.0

0.92mA

0.90mA

4.0

1.82mA

1.81mA

6.0

2.75mA

2.72mA

8.0

3.66mA

3.63mA

10.0

4.56mA

4.54mA

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12.0

5.46mA

5.45mA

14.0

6.40mA

6.36mA

16.0

7.29mA

7.27mA

18.0

8.23mA

8.18mA

20.0

9.20mA

9.05mA

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

The load voltage and current results of the original circuit and the equivalent circuit matched
to within 4.9% except when the power supply current limit affected performance. Thus the
test demonstrates the suitability of modelling complex networks with a Ohms law network.

RESULTS GRAPHED

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25

20

15

Voltage
MEASURED CURRENT
10

0
0

5
Current

DISCUSSION
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Discussion
As can be seen from the data presented above, Ohms law can be easily
verified using a simple circuit. If the applied voltage and resistance in a
series circuit are known, the total circuit current can be predicted using
Ohms law. In fact, if any two of the three terms (voltage, current and
resistance) are known. However, currents are manufactured such that their
actual value is within a tolerance.

And measured the current by ohms law (V = IR)

Only two sets of results were plotted on the Network load characteristic
as shown in GRAPH as the results were very close (within 5%) between
the theoretical results and the practical results for the circuit. The
equivalent circuit results vary from the theoretical results due to the
approximate.

CONCLUSION

The numerical results obtained from using Ohm's Law (V = IR) to

calculated the resistance in a circuit, utilizing measured quantities for
current and voltage, are close enough to the accepted values to validate
this experiment. While there is some discrepancy in the accepted and
calculated values this can be reasonably explained by the presence of
random error in the experiment.

REFERENCES

Boylestad
Boctor

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Introductory Circuit Analysis 9th edition Prentice Hall

Electric Circuit Analysis

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Electrical Systems

DISCUSSION
As can be seen from the data presented above, Ohms law can be easily
verified using a simple circuit. If the applied voltage and resistance in a
series circuit are known, the total circuit current can be predicted using
Ohms law. In fact, if any two of the three terms (voltage, current and
resistance) are known. However, currents are manufactured such that their
actual value is within a tolerance.

And measured the current by ohms law (V = IR)

Only two sets of results were plotted on the Network load characteristic
as shown in GRAPH as the results were very close (within 5%) between
the theoretical results and the practical results for the circuit. The
equivalent circuit results vary from the theoretical results due to the
approximate.

CONCLUSION

Overall, both parts of this lab demonstrated the relationship outlined by

Ohms Law and fostered a higher comprehension of the mechanisms
driving circuit behaviour. The direct relationships between voltage,
current, and resistance allow measurement of the voltage and current
without resistance being known. Additionally, the ability to manipulate
voltage allowed the experiment to contain a sense of systematic collection
of data to provide a contextual experimental example of the relationships
in Ohms law. Moreover, the experiment also demonstrated how the
different configurations of resistors, parallel or in a series could play a role
in the behaviour of the circuit and its components. In conclusion, this lab
effectively helped grant a higher understanding of how circuits are
governed by Ohms law.

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