CAREY FOSTER BRIDGE

AIM: To Determine The Resistance Per Unit Length Of A Bridge Wire And To Determine An
Unknown Resistance By Carey-Foster’s Method
Rh
E

P Q
R Rx

A B

Fig 1: Schematic circuit diagram (½)

AB : Bridge Wire , 1m length
R : Fractional resistance box
Rx : Unknown resistance
P,Q : Standard resistance
G : Table galvanometer
E : Lechlanche’s cell
C : Plug commutator
Rh : Rheostat

WORKING FORMULA:
When the Carey Foster’s bridge is balanced by putting resistance R on the left end and unknown
resistance RX on the right end of the bridge, the null point is obtained at l1 cm from the left end .
Then plotting R vs. l1, we get a straight line with slope M1.
Again when the Carey Foster’s bridge is balanced by putting unknown resistance RX on the
left end and R on the
right end of the bridge, the null point is obtained at l2 cm from the left end. Then plotting R vs. l2
on the same graph,
we get another straight line with slope M2.
These two straight lines do not pass through the origin.
The resistance per unit length of the bridge wire is given by:
 From the intersection of these two straight lines, we obtain the unknown resistance RX.

APPARATUS USED:
 Carey Foster’s Bridge of wire 1 m long.
 Fractional resistance box.
 Unknown resistance
 P,Q: Standard 1 ohm resistance coils
 Plug commutator
 Power supply
 Table galvanometer

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:

Table 1: Readings for null points

A : ( to measure L1 cm from the left end with R in left gap and RX in the right gap )

Obs. Resistance Null point in cm

Left gap Right gap
R (ohm) (ohm) Direct Reverse Mean( L1)

RX

B : (L2 from the left end with RX in the left gap and R in the right gap)

Obs. Resistance Null point in cm

Right gap Left gap
R (ohm) (ohm) Direct Reverse Mean( L2)

RX
 Table 2 : Consolidated Results from graph (SHOW THE CALCULATIONS OF THE TWO SLOPES)

Slope M1 Slope M2 from ρ = 1 / (M2 – M1) Unknown

From L1 vs. L2 vs. R graph resistance RX
R graph ohm/cm Ohm

GRAPH

PERCENTAGE ERROR: (Show The Calculation)

= minimum division of the meter scale

=
L1 = Max. value of null point from Table1A
and L2 = Min. value of null point from Table1B

P.E. = 100%

PRECAUTIONS:

1. By Carey-Foster’s bridge the end corrections can be eliminated from the calculation of
unknown resistance which is not possible using a meter bridge.

2. As the bridge wire is not perfectly uniform, R should be chosen such that the length ( l2- l1)
between two null point is as large as possible.

3. The ratio of P and Q should be equal to 1 or nearly equal to one, otherwise null points may
not be obtained within the bridge wire. For greater sensitiveness of the bridge, the values of P
and Q should be each equal to one ohm.

4. For first observation, the value in R should be so chosen that the two balance points should
be very near to the two ends of the bridge wire. By this (l2- l1) will be more accurate so that
the calculated value of ρ is nearer to accuracy. For the successive observations the value of R
should be so chosen so as to shift the null point gradually towards the middle of the wire by
steps of about 5cm.
PROCEDURE :

1. Connect the resistance box ‘R’ and unknown resistance ‘Rx’ in the left gap and right gap
respectively.
2. Choose a resistance (R1) from the resistance box so that the null point should be found between
5-10cm and similarly
3. Choose another resistance (R2) so that the null point should be found between 90-95 cm.
4. Obtain the null points for different resistances between R1 and R2. The values should be so
chosen that they are at regular intervals.
5. The same steps should be repeated for the previous values of ‘R’ after interchanging the
positions of ‘R’ and ‘Rx’.
6. A graph should be plotted by taking resistance along x-axis and null point along y-axis.

NATURE OF THE GRAPH :

l
in
cm

Rx

R in ohm