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Lab 4 - DC Circuits

William Ross conducted an experiment on Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's rules using virtual circuits. [1] He determined the resistance and length of a virtual pencil lead using Ohm's Law. [2] Kirchhoff's voltage and current rules were tested in complex and simple circuits. [3] The results confirmed these circuit laws and showed maximum power transfer occurs when a circuit's resistance equals the internal resistance of the power source.

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52 views

Lab 4 - DC Circuits

William Ross conducted an experiment on Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's rules using virtual circuits. [1] He determined the resistance and length of a virtual pencil lead using Ohm's Law. [2] Kirchhoff's voltage and current rules were tested in complex and simple circuits. [3] The results confirmed these circuit laws and showed maximum power transfer occurs when a circuit's resistance equals the internal resistance of the power source.

Uploaded by

Straight As Study
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Title of the Experiment: Ohm’s Law and Kirchhoff’s Rules

Student’s name: William Ross


Section SLN: 81045
TA’s Name: Yeshwanth Sangishetty
Date of the experiment: 9th November, 2022

1
Objective:
 To determine the resistance and length of a virtual pencil lead by applying Ohm’s Law.
 To investigate Kirchhoff’s voltage and current rules.
 To find the condition for maximum power transfer in a simple DC circuit.

Experimental Data:

2
KHET and logger pro screenshots of part 1

Connection of ammeters and voltmeters to test Kirchhoff’s rules in a diagonal circuit.

3
Connection to test maximum power transfer theorem

LoggerPro screenshot to test maximum power transfer theorem

4
Data Analysis:

Part 1:

The gradient of the graph was m=0.04006 .

Given that this was a graph of I vs. V, the resistance of the pencil lead can be determined as the
reciprocal of the gradient of the graph.

1
∴ R=
0.04006
R=24.96 Ω

∆m ∆R
=
m R

∆ R=R ( ∆mm )
( )
−5
5.804 ×10
∆ R=24.96
0.04006

∆ R=0.0362 Ω

L
R=ρ
A

RA
L=
ρ

R ( π r 2)
L=
ρ

−3 2
24.96 × π ( 0.3 ×10 )
L= −4
3 ×10

L=0.0235m

5
Part 2.1:

For junction A, the sum of the currents leaving and entering the junction must be 0.
I 1+ I 2 + I 3 =0
1.6 5+(−1.23)+(−0. 42)=0

For Loop 1,
V 1 +V 2 +V 3=0
25+(−16.54 )+(−8. 46)=0

For Loop 2,
V 1 +V 2 +V 3=0
18. 46+(−1 0)+(−8. 46)=0

Part 2.2:

The percent discrepancy between Aact and A graph is


|A act− A graph|
% discrepancy= ×100
A act
|100−99.71|
% discrepancy= × 10 0
100

% discrepancy=0.29 %

The percent discrepancy between Bact and Bgraph is


|Bact −Bgraph|
% discrepancy= ×100
Bact
|5−4.987|
% discrepancy= ×10 0
5

% discrepancy=0.26 %

6
Results:

Table 1:
Resistance and uncertainty of pencil lead (Ω) ( 2.496 ± 0.0 04 ) x 101
Length of pencil lead (m) 0.0235

Table 2:
Circuit value Curve fit parameter Percent discrepancy (%)
value
2 2
Vs (V ) 100 99.71 0.29
Rs (Ω) 5 4.987 0.26

Discussion and Conclusion:

In this experiment, virtual circuits were used to apply and test Ohm’s and Kirchhoff’s Laws. The
former was used to determine the resistance of a virtual pencil lead, while the latter was used to
test both voltage and current rules. Ohm law simply states that the voltage in a circuit is directly
proportional to both the current and resistance. Kirchhoff’s voltage and current laws state that the
net voltage and current in a closed loop will be zero.

In part one of the experiment, voltage and current readings were taken across a pencil lead for
varying battery emfs. When the graph of current vs. voltage across the pencil lead was plotted, a
straight-line fit was observed, which indicated that the pencil lead did obey Ohm’s law.
However, the slope of this I-V graph represented the reciprocal of the resistance, which was
found to be ( 2.496 ± 0.004 ) x 101 Ω. Additionally, the length of the pencil used was found to be
0.0235 m.

In part two (a), Kirchhoff’s voltage and current rules were investigated in a simulated complex
diagonal circuit. At each junction, it was seen that the total current entering the junction was
equal to the total current leaving the junction, that is, their algebraic sum was zero. This is
because the current, which is a flow of electrons, cannot disappear at any point of the circuit.
Additionally, the algebraic sum of the potential difference across components in the individual
closed loops was also found to be zero. This directly follows the law of conservation of energy

7
since potential difference can be expressed as the energy per unit charge. both of which
confirmed Kirchhoff’s voltage and current rules.

In part two (b), a simple circuit was set up to determine the condition for maximum power
transfer in a DC circuit. From the graph of power versus resistance, it was seen that the
relationship was non-linear, having a maximum value of power when the resistance was 5 Ω.
This corresponds directly to the value of the internal resistance of the battery, that is, the
battery’s internal resistance determines the maximum power transfer.

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