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CURRENT & RESISTANCE

Lab Report

Physics 2212 L

Riadul Hoque

900924129

Dr. Ebrahim Hassan-Zadeh

Section: Tuesday 4.00pm

Date: 6 February 2017

Partners: Asamah & Jordan

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CURRENT AND RESISTANCE

Objectives:
The objective of this lab is to find the relationship between current, voltage and resistance which
is known by the Ohm’s Law. Another objective is to find the energy released as heat in a resistor
and compare it with the theoretical value.

Procedure:
According to Ohm’s Law Current, I = V/R ; where V is the voltage and R is the resistance.
At first, a basic circuit is made, where ammeter is in series and voltmeter is in parallel
connection. A one-meter wire is used as a resistor. Using different settings of Voltage, the
Current is measured and a graphed. The graph gives a line and the slope is the resistance of the
wire. Then, the volt was read for different length of the string. The values were graphed, and the
slope gave the Electric field. The resistivity was calculated.

For the last activity, a simple calorimeter was used to measure the temperature rise in the water
in the calorimeter. Using the formula Q= IVt the theoretical value was measured.
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DATA
Activity 1

Voltage, v I, mA
0 0
0.2 0.07
0.4 0.12
0.6 0.18
0.8 0.22
1.0 0.27
1.2 0.33
1.4 0.39
1.6 0.44
1.8 0.50
2.0 0.55

Activity 2

Length, cm Voltage, V
0 0.03
10 0.064
20 0.126
30 0.186
40 0.246
50 0.310
60 0.371
70 0.43
80 0.49
90 0.56
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Activity 3
Diameter of the wire = 0.65mm
Activity 4
Mass of the system without water = 82.59g
Mass of the system with water = 299.01g
Mass of the water = 216.42g, (Specific heat of water, c = 4.186 J/gC)
I = 2.34mA
V=10.0v
t = 300s
Initial Temperature, Ti = 18.8 C
Final Temperature Tf = 24.3 C

ANALYSIS & CALCULATIONS

Activity 1
Graph

Current vs Voltage y = 0.2709x + 0.0082

0.6

0.5

0.4
Current

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Voltage

Equation of the graph is, y = 0.2709x + 0.0082

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R = 0.2709 Ω
If the resistance of the wire increased with voltage the graph would be more horizontal.

Activity 2
Graph

Voltage vs Distance
y = 0.5993x + 0.0115
0.6

0.5

0.4
Voltage (v)

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Distance (m)

Equation of the graph, y = 0.5993x + 0.0115

Electric field, E = 0.5993

Activity 3
R = ρL/A;
L = 1 m; A = 4π(0.00065/2)2
Resistance of the wire is 0.2709Ω
Ρ = 0.2709*4π*(0.00065/2)2/ 1 = 8.98 x 10-8 Ωm
From the table, it can be concluded that the given wire was either Nickel(6.8) or Iron(9.7).

Activity 4
Energy, Q = (mass of water + 23g) c ΔT

= (216.42g + 23g)*4.186* (24.3-18.8)°C = 5512.16J

Q = IVt = 10.0v * 2.34mA * 300s = 7020 J

Percent Difference: (7020-5512.16/7020) * 100% = 21.5%

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CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this lab clearly demonstrated the Ohm’s Law. From the graph, it’s clear that the
voltage increases with the current increase at a ratio. The ratio is the Resistance. The slope of the
graph from voltage and length of the wire gives the Electric Field of the wire. From the
resistivity, it can be said that the given wire was most probably Iron. The energy from the heat
calculated was 5512.16 J. The theoretical value found was 7020 J, which gives 21.5% error. In
thermodynamic experiments, the error tends to be more.