Physics-131: Lab 2 2. Ohm’s LawProf.

Anchordoqui
Ohm’s law

I. OBJECTIVES

• Become familiar with the use of a digital voltmeter

and a digital ammeter to measure DC voltage and
current.

• Construct a series circuit using resistors, wires, and

a breadboard.

• Test the validity of Ohm’s law.

II. BACKGROUND
2. Ohm’s Law
In the U.S., most of us use electricity every day. That FIG. 1: Schematics of circuits
(a)illustrating
Series resistors connected in
electricity is handled in circuits: a closed loop of con- series.
ductors travelling from power plants to neighborhoods
to households and back again. That closed loop, with Figure 2.1: Schematics of circuits illustrating re
all of its many parts, forms one huge electrical circuit. and in parallel.
Today we will use the three essential parts of a circuit:
power supply (or battery), wires, and resistors. We will
learn how resistors affect the current of electrons that Series Parall
flows through them, and how connecting resistors in
different ways changes their behavior. VS = V1 + V2 VP = V1 =
IS = I1 = I2 IP = I1 +
1 1 1
A. Key concepts RS = R1 + R2 RP
= R1
+ R2
or
One of the fundamental laws describing how electri- Table 2.1: Equations for two resistors in
cal circuits behave is Ohm’s law. According to Ohm’s
law, there is a linear relationship between the voltage
drop across a circuit element and the current flowing
through it. Therefore the resistance is viewed as a con- Using these relationships, a complex circuit c
stant independent of the voltage and the current. More with a single resistor. You may wish to review
explicitely, equivalent resistance of circuits in your physics
V = iR , (1)

where V is the voltage applied across the circuit in volts

(a) Series 2.5 In today’s lab
(b) Parallel
FIG. 2: Schematics of circuits illustrating resistors connected in
(V), i is the current flowing through the circuit in units
parallel.
of amperes (A), and R is the resistance of the circuit
Today we’ll become accustomed to some stan
with units of ohms (Ω). (1) implies that, for a resistor
Figure 2.1: Schematics of circuits illustrating resistors
with constant resistance, the current flowing through it connected
we’ll figure out how to usein theseries
circuit boards, re
It is important to understand just what is meant by
and in parallel.
is proportional to the voltage across it. If the voltage is
held constant, then the current is inversely proportional
series and parallel circuits. Then we’ll learn ho
these quantities. The current (i) is a measure of how
manythrough
to the resistance. If the voltage polarity is reversed (that
a wire,
electrons are aspast
flowing well as the
a given pointvoltage
during abetwee
is, if the applied voltage is negative instead of positive), Finally, we’ll verify that the equations
set amount of time. The current flows because of the elec-that ar
tric potential (V), sometimes referred to as the voltage,
the same current flows but in the opposite direction. If
Series Parallel section are actually correct.
applied to a circuit. In much the same way that a grav-
Ohm’s law is valid, it can be used to define resistance as:
itational potential will cause mass to move, the electric
VS = V1R+= VV,2 VP(2) = potential
V1 22=V will cause electrons to move.
2 Last Ifupdated
you liftJanuary
a book 24, 20
i and release it from a height (high gravitational potential)
it will fall downward (to a lower potential). The electric
I =I =I
S
where R is a constant, 1independent
2 of V and i. IP = I + I 1
potential 2
works in a similar way; if one point of the cir-
1 1 1 R 1 R2
RS = R1 + R2 RP
= R1
+ R2
or RP = R1 +R2

Table 2.1: Equations for two resistors in series and parallel.

Using these relationships, a complex circuit can be redrawn as a circuit

 2
2. Ohm’s Law
cuit has a high electric potential, it means that it has a net
positive charge and another point of the circuit with a
low potential will have a net negative charge. Electrons
in a wire will flow from low electric potential with its
net negative charge to high electric potential with its net
positive charge because unlike charges attract and like
charges repel.1
As these electrons flow through the wire, they are scat-
tered by atoms in the wire. The resistance of the circuit
is just that; it is a measure of how difficult it is for the
electrons to flow in the presence of such scattering. This
resistance is a property of the circuit itself, and just about
any material has a resistance. Materials that have a low
resistance are called conductors and materials that have
a very high resistance are called insulators. Some ma-
terials have a moderate resistance and still allow some
current to flow. These are the materials that we use to
make resistors like the ones we will use in this experi- Figure
FIG. 3:2.5: Standard
Standard symbols
symbols.
ment. In short, the electric potential causes the current
to flow and the resistance impedes that flow.
Two or more resistors can be connected in series all(that
(i.e. 0.00), you have
a number a very
between 1 andsmall current and
99 multiplied by can
somethen move the
power
is connected one after another as shown in Fig.to1),the or 400ofmAten.plug.
These color bands tell the value of the resistance.
in parallel (that is the current can split: there is more Starting from thebe
end, the first band
than one way for the current to flow as shown in Fig. 2).
An ammeter must connected in represents
series with the the
first circuit
digit of the resistance value and the second band the
When two resistors R1 and R2 are connected in ment series, of interest, as shown in Fig. 2.4(b). This means that unlike me
second digit. The third band represents the power of
the equivalent resistance Req is given by ing voltage, tenif multiplying
you want tothe measure
first twocurrent
digits.youThemust break
fourth bandthe circui
wire the ammeter
represents in.the
Alltolerance.
of the current
If the must
fourthflow
bandthrough the amme
is absent,
Req = R1 + R2 . order (3)for it
it to be measured.
means the tolerance If you use your
is 20%. finger
In Fig. 4 wetoshowtraceanthe path
example together with a color code
charge in Fig. 2.4(b) after it leaves the power supply, you chart, from whichwill see t
Hence, the circuit behaves as if it contained a single resis- one can tell the resistance of a resistor.
must
tor with resistance Req and it draws current from a given go through both the resistor and the ammeter. In contrast, tr
applied voltage like such a resistor. When those same the path of a charge in Fig. 2.4(a) you will see that it has two “par
paths through which it can go (do not connect an ammeter in this
resistors are connected in parallel instead, the equivalent
C. The DC power supply
resistance is related to R1 and R2 according to ner). An ammeter typically has a very small internal resistance. Ther
the current in the circuit is approximately the same before and afte
1 1 1 A DC power supply is used to provide varying volt-
= + . ammeter
(4) isage
connected.
to a circuit. The power supply used in this lab is
Req R1 R2
Standard
shownelectronic
in Fig. symbols are shown
5. The black and redinconnectors
Fig. 2.5. The positive s
are the
a battery or
negative (−) and positive (+) output terminals, respec- line.
power supply is indicated with the longer vertical
B. Standard electronic symbols and resistor color codes
tively. The voltage knob controls the power supply’s
output voltage. The current knob sets a limiting current.
The Breadboard
Here, adjust the current control to its maximum setting
Standard electronic symbols are shown in Fig. 3. The (all the way clockwise) at all times.
positive side of a battery or power supply is indicated The breadboard is designed for quick construction of simple electron
with the longer vertical line. cuits and is shown in Figure 2.6. Electronic elements (e.g. resistors
Most resistors are coded with color bands around one
D. The digital multimeter
end of the resistor body. Using the resistor color code
system is similar to using scientific notation. Scientific 26 Last updated January 24, 2013
notation uses a number between 0 and 9.9 multiplied by The digital multimeter is shown in Fig. 5. As its name
some power of ten. The resistor color code system uses suggests, a multimeter has multiple functions. It can be
used for several different purposes: (i) a voltage measur-
ing device (a voltmeter), (ii) a current measuring device
(an ammeter), and (iii) a resistance measuring device
1 Note that we say the current flows from high poential to low poten- (an ohmmeter). We will use all these functions in this
tial, but electrons flow from low to high. This is because current is experiment.
defined as the flow of positive charges, and electrons are negatively To use the multimeter as a voltmeter, the dial selector
charged. A negative charge flowing in one direction is like a positive
charge flowing in the other. Yes, it is confusing, but we cannot make is set to one of the positions labeled “V.” The probing ca-
the whole world start calling electrons positively charged, so we are bles are then connected to the plugs labeled “VΩ0 ” and
stuck with it. “COM.” There are two types of “V” settings. The setting
2. Ohm’s Law

3
Table 2.2: Resistor color codes

Color 1st digit 2nd digit Power of 10 Tolerance “mV.” When using the “mV” setting, the output of the
black 0 0 0 - multimeter will be in millivolts. Whether the multime-
brown 1 1 1 -
ter is used to measure voltage (as a voltmeter) or current
red 2 2 2 -
(as an ammeter), one cable is always connected to the
COM plug. If the multimeter is used to measure current,
orange 3 3 3 -
the other lead is connected to either the 10 A plug or the
yellow 4 4 4 -
400 mA plug.
green 5 5 5 -
blue 6 6 6 -
violet 7 7 7 - A voltmeter must be connected in parallel (across) to
gray 8 8 8 - the circuit element of interest, as shown in Fig. 6. Since
white 9 9 9 - the voltmeter measures potential difference between two
gold - - - 5%
points, it is easy to connect. To measure the potential dif-
silver - - - 10%
ference (voltage drop) across a resistor, use two cables to
connect the plugs of the voltmeter to the circuit across
none - - - 20%
the resistor (one cable before the resistor and a second
cable after the resistor). A voltmeter typically has a very
large internal resistance; therefore very little current will
flow through it. Consequently, the current in the cir-
cuit will be approximately the same before and after the
voltmeter is connected.
FIG. 4: The upper panel shows the resistor color codes. The first
digit of the resistance in the lower panel is a 4, the second digit is To use the multimeter as an ammeter, the dial selector
a 7 and the multiplier is a 3, so the resistance is R = 47 × 103 Ω. is set to one of the positions labeled “A.” Similar to the
The fourth color is used to calculate the uncertainty in the voltmeter settings there are AC and DC settings. Like the
resistance. The tolerance of this resistor is 5% (corresponding voltmeter, two cables must be connected to the ammeter.
to the gold band). The uncertainty in the resistance is given by: One of your cables must be connected to the plug labeled
uncertainty = R × tolerance = 4.7 × 104 Ω × 5/100 = 2.35 × 103 Ω. “COM.” The second cable can be connected to one of two
2. Ohm’s Law Figure 2.11: Example resistor. possible plugs: either the 10 A plug or the 400 mA plug.
If you have a large amount of current (anything above
400 mA), you must connect the cable to the terminal
32 Last updated January 24, 2013 marked 10 A. If you put it in the 400 mA terminal you
could damage the multimeter. If you are unsure if you
have too much current for the 400 mA plug, start with
the 10 A plug. If you do not get any reading at all (that is
0.00), you have a very small current and can then move
the cable to the 400 mA plug.

An ammeter must be connected in series with the cir-

cuit element of interest, as shown in Fig. 6. This means
that unlike measuring voltage, if you want to measure
current you must break the circuit and wire the ammeter
in. All of the current must flow through the ammeter
in order for it to be measured. If you use your finger to
Figure 2.2: DC power supply Figure 2.3: Digital multimeter trace the path of a charge in Fig. 6 (right) after it leaves
FIG. 5: The DC power supply (left) and the digital multimeter the power supply, you will see that it must go through
(right).the To use the multimeter as a voltmeter, the dial selector is set to one of both the resistor and the ammeter. In contrast, tracing
positions labeled “V”. The probing cables are then connected to the
plugs labeled “V ” and “COM”. There are two types of “V” settings. The the path of a charge in Fig. 6 (left) you will see that it
setting with the tilde (⇠) over it is used for measuring AC voltage. The
other type of “V” setting has two lines over the V, one line is solid and
has two “parallel” paths through which it can go (do not
the second line is dashed, to indicate DC voltage. AC is an abbreviation
with the tilde (−) over it is used for measuring AC volt- connect an ammeter in this manner). An ammeter typi-
for alternating current. An AC voltage is a voltage whose magnitude and
age. The other type of “V” setting has two lines over the
polarity vary with time. DC is an abbreviation for direct current. A DC cally has a very small internal resistance. Therefore, the
voltage is a constant voltage. During this experiment, only the DC setting
V, one line is solid and the second line is dashed, to in- current in the circuit is approximately the same before
is used. There are two DC voltage settings on the multimeter: “V” and
“mV”. When using the “mV” setting, the output of the multimeter will
dicate DC voltage. AC is an abbreviation for alternating and after the ammeter is connected.
be in millivolts. Whether the multimeter is used to measure voltage (as a
current. An AC voltage is a voltage whose magnitude
24 Last updated January 24, 2013
and polarity vary with time. DC is an abbreviation for di- An ohmmeter does not function with a circuit con-
rect current. A DC voltage is a constant voltage. During nected to a power supply. If you want to measure the
this experiment, we will only use the DC setting. There resistance of a particular component, you must take it
are two DC voltage settings on the multimeter: “V” and out of the circuit altogether and test it separately.
 2.6. Equipment
4

FIG. 6: Schematics(a) Voltmeter

of meters beingconnected in aparallel
connected in (b) Ammeter
circuit. Voltmeter connected connected
in parallel (left) and in series conected in series
ammeter
(right).
Figure 2.4: Schematics of meters being connected in a circuit.
2.6. Equipment

path where current can flow.2 All points on a wire/line

have the same voltage. Because of this, a circuit may be
voltmeter) or current (as an ammeter), realized
one cable is always
by several connected
different to of wire. For
arrangements
the COM plug. If the multimeter is used example,
to measure current,
see Fig. 8. the other lead
is connected to either the 10A plug or the 400mA plug.
A voltmeter must be connected in parallel (across) for
G. Suggestions tobuilding
the cir- circuits
cuit element of interest, as shown in Fig. 2.4(a). Since the voltmeter
di⇥erence between two The schematic
it isrepresentation of electronic
To circuits typ-
Figure 2.6: Breadboard
measures FIG. 7:potential
The breadboard. points, easy to connect.
ically shows wires as straight lines and changes in the
measure
easily attached thespring
using the metal potential
clips in the middle di⇥erence
of the bread- (voltage drop) across a resistor, use two
direction of the wires are indicated by abrupt bends in the
board. Each metal clip is electrically connected to a plug connector by a
metallic cables to connect the plugsplugof
strip. The resistance between the metal clip and the the voltmeter
connec- wires.toInthe circuit
practice, across wires
the flexible the resis-
are not straight and
tor is negligible; therefore, you can assume that these two points are at the
tor
same electrical (one
potential cable
(voltage) and
E. The breadboard before
the same point the
in a resistor
circuit. Circuits and a as you
second might
cable expect
after changes
the in direction
resistor). Aare not abrupt
are constructed by connecting the electronic circuit elements and the power 90 degree bends in the wires. Adding measuring devices
voltmeter
supply together using cables typically
with banana plugs.has a very
The banana
curely into the plug connectors on the breadboard, the multimeter and the
plugs fitlarge
se- internal
(e.g. resistance; therefore tovery
ammeters, voltmeters) little increases the
the circuit
Thepower currentis will
supply.
breadboard designed flowfor through
quick constructionit. Consequently, of thecomplexity.
circuits current in Thethe circuitsteps
following willwill guide you
simpleWires
electronic circuits and is shown in Fig.
be approximately the same before and after the voltmeter is connected. 7. Elec- through the construction of a simple circuit that includes
tronic You
elements (e.g. resistors) are easily attached using an ammeter and a voltmeter. To avoid confusion, all of
the metal
diagrams.
Toclips
Each line
useinany
without
the multimeter
will have to hook up wires to make the circuits described in the circuit
spring the middle
circuit of the
element should
as toan
breadboard.
correspond a
ammeter, the dial selector is set to one
the wires used in the following example have different
ofclipthe
where current canisflow.
4 positions
electrically labeled
wire in your circuit. A wire (or line in the diagram) represents a path
Each metal All points onconnected
a wire/line have
“A”.
to the
a plug Similar tocolors.
same con-
the voltmeter
The figures settings
in this guidethereshow areboth the circuit
by aAC
voltage.
nectorarrangements of and
Because
metallicwire. ForDC
of this, a
strip.
example,settings.
circuit may be realized
The resistance
see Fig. 2.7. Like between
by
the voltmeter,
several di⇥erent the two cables
represented must be connected
schematically and how thetocircuit actually
metal clip and thea resistor
plug connector is negligible; there- looks in practice.
fore, you
4
the
A wire
typicallycan
is ammeter.
actually
assume
use in class.
with
Therefore,that
very One
low
these
we can usually
of(ignore)
resistance
two
neglect
your
compared to
points
the cables
resistors we MUST be connected to the plug labeled
arethatat the
any resistance

same electrical “COM”.

transmission since there isThe
lines,potential second
(voltage)
so much wire involved. and cable
the same canpoint
it has. On the other hand, this resistance is a big factor in long-distance electrical
be connected
in to one
1. Start of two the
by building possible plugs any meters.
circuit without
Where two lines meet, you will need two wires.
—- either
a circuit. Circuits the “10A”
are constructed by plug
connecting or the the“400mA”
elec- plug. If youit have
Although may
a large
seem
amount
efficient to initially construct
Last updated January 24, 2013 27
tronic circuit of elements
current and (anythingthe power abovesupply 400 together
mA), you must connect the cable to the experience
using cables with banana plugs. The banana plugs fit the circuit with the meters included,
securely into terminal
the plug connectorsmarked “10A”. on the breadboard,If you puttheit in the has “400mA”
shown that terminal you often
this method couldleads to wiring
multimeter,damage and the power the multimeter.
supply. If you are unsure if you have too much currentsimple
errors. In Fig. 9 we show a for circuit with
a power supply and a single resistor. The green
the 400 mA plug, start with the 10A plug. If wire you do not get any
is connected to thereading
positiveatterminal of the
power supply and the white wire is connected to
Last updated January 24,the negative terminal.
2013 25
F. Wires

2 A wire is actually a resistor with very low resistance compared to the

You will have to hook up wires to make the circuits
resistors we typically use in class. Therefore, we can usually neglect
described in the circuit diagrams. Each line without (ignore) any resistance that it has. On the other hand, this resistance
any circuit element should correspond to a wire in your is a big factor in long-distance electrical transmission lines, since
circuit. A wire (or line in the diagram) represents a there is so much wire involved.
 5

2.6. Equipment
FIG. 8: These two circuits are equivalent. They have the same configuration of elements and will act in exactly the same manner.
Figure 2.7: These two circuits are equivalent — they have the same config-
uration of elements and will act in exactly the same manner.

Suggestions for building circuits

The schematic representation of electronic circuits typically shows wires as
straight lines and changes in the direction of the wires are indicated by
abrupt bends in the wires. In practice, the flexible wires are not straight
and as you might expect changes in direction are not abrupt 90 degree
bends in the wires. Adding measuring devices (e.g. ammeters, voltmeters)
to the circuit increases the circuit’s complexity. The following steps will
guide you through the construction of a simple circuit that includes an
ammeter and a voltmeter. To avoid confusion, all of the wires used in the
following example have di⇥erent colors. The figures in this guide show both
(a) Schematic (b) In practice
the9: Building
FIG. circuit arepresented schematically
circuit that includes a power supply and how
and resistor; the circuit
schematic actually
(left) and looks
in practice in
(right).
practice.
Figure 2.8: Building a circuit that includes a power supply and resistor.
2. Include an ammeter in the circuit to measure cur- gle resistor, and an ammeter. Turn the dial to read
1. Start
rent. Attach a single by wire building
to the “COM” theinputcircuit
of without
mA or A. any meters.
By default, Where
it is set to readtwo AC current.
your ammeter; lines
in meet,
this you
example, will
this is need
the two
purple wires.
2. Include an ammeter in the circuit to measure current. Attach WeAlthough
have DC it may
current, seem
so press e⇧cient
the yellow button
wire. Identifytothe element
initially in your
construct circuit through
the circuit of with to change the mode
the meters included, to DC. experience to do
You will have
which theadesired
single wire to
current the “COM”
is flowing (in this input
case yourthisammeter; in this example,
again if the multimeter turns off automatically.
thishas
the resistor). is shown
Unplugthe the that(or
purple
wire this
wire. method
wires) leadingoften
Identify leads
Notetothat
the element wiring
in your
the errors. Figs.
circuitshould
ammeter through 2.8(a)“DC” just
display
into one end (schematically)
of that element and and plug 2.8(b)
all of them(in practice) to theshow
right ofa the
simple
numberscircuit
and an with a ampers
“A” for
which the desired current
into either the 400 mA or 10 A input of your am-
is flowing (in this case the resistor).
(the unit for current).
Unplug
thepower
meter, depending wire supply
on(or wires)
the size
and a single
leading
of the current youintoresistor.
one endThe
are
green
of that wire isand
element connected
plug all to of the
measuring.them
Inpositive
thisinto terminal
either
example, there ofonly
theis400mAtheone power
or 10Asupply
wire input and
of your
3. Include
the white wire
ammeter,
a voltmeter
iscircuit
connected
depending
in the to measure volt-
leading to thetoresistor
the (the green
negative wire) and
terminal. we are
on the size of the current you are measuring. In this example, there is inputs. In
using the 400 mA setting of the ammeter. Plug the
age. Attach two wires to the voltmeter
only
free end of the onepurplewire leading
wire into theto theonresistor
plug the (thethe example below the red wire is connected to the
green wire) and we are using
V input and the black wire is connected to the COM
28 the
breadboard where
400mA you removed
settingthe ofLast
theupdated
circuit’s wire January
ammeter. Plug 24,the
2013
input of free end of the
the voltmeter. Attach purple
the free end of each
(or wires), that is the place where the green wire wire you
acrossremoved
the circuitthe
element whose voltage you
wire into the plug on the
was connected in Fig. 9. You have now forced all breadboard where circuit’s
would like to measure; in this case the red wire is
wirecarried
of the current (or wires) — i.e.
by the wire the place
(or wires) to go where the greentowire
connected wasofconnected
the right the resistor and the black
through the ammeter in addition to the circuit
in Fig. 2.8(b). You have now forced all wire el- of the current carried
is connected to the leftby of the
the resistor. The
ement of interest. The ammeter is now properly
connectedwire (orwith
in series wires) to go through
the resistor. In Fig. 10 we the ammeter in addition to the circuit in parallel
voltmeter is now properly connected
with the resistor, as seen in Fig. 11. Never connect
element
show our simple of interest.
circuit with a power The ammeter
supply, a sin- is nowanproperly
ammeter in connected
this fashion inasseries
it can damager the
with the resistor. Figs. 2.9(a) (schematically) and 2.9(b) (in practice)
show our simple circuit with a power supply, a single resistor, and an
ammeter. Turn the dial to read mA or A. By default, it is set
to read AC current. We have DC current, so press the yellow
button to change the mode to DC. You’ll have to do this again if the
multimeter turns o⇥ automatically. Note that the ammeter should
 2. Ohm’s Law
6

(a) Schematic 2.6.

(b) In practice Equipment
FIG. 10: Building a circuit that includes a power supply, ammeter, and resistor; schematic (left) and in practice (right).

Figure 2.9: Building a circuit that includes a power supply, ammeter, and
resistor.

display “DC” just to the right of the numbers and an “A” for Amps
(the unit for current).
3. Include a voltmeter in the circuit to measure voltage. Attach
two wires to the voltmeter inputs. In the example below the red wire
is connected to the “V ” input and the black wire is connected to
the “COM” input of the voltmeter. Attach the free end of each wire
across the circuit element whose voltage you would like to measure –
in this case the red wire is connected to the right of the resistor and
the black wire is connected to the left of the resistor. The voltmeter
is now properly connected in parallel with the resistor, as seen in Fig.
(a) Schematic (b) In practice
2.10.
FIG. 11: Building Never
a circuit connect
that includes an ammeter
a power supply, inand
voltmeter, resistor, this fashion
ammeter; as(left)itandcan
schematic in practice (right).
Figuredamager the meter.
2.10: Building a circuit that includes a power supply, voltmeter,
resistor, and ammeter.
meter. supply! So the next time you turn on the power
Once you have constructed a circuit, no matter how
supply its complicated,
output you
will be zero volts.
Oncecan use steps two and three to measure the current flowing through a given
you have constructed a circuit, no matter how
complicated, you can use steps two and three to measure
element
notation.
the current
in through
the circuit
flowing Scientific
and
notation
a given
theuses
element in
voltage across between
a number
the circuit
that circuit element.
0 and 9.9 multiplied
and the
byvoltage
someacross that
power ofcircuit element.
ten. The resistor color code system uses aIII.numberMATERIALS
between
Resistor color codes
01 and 99 multiplied by some power of ten. These color bands tell the value
• DC power supply; see Fig. 5.
of the resistance. Starting from the end, the first band represents the first
H. Safety tips
Most resistors are coded with color bands around one end of the resistor
digit of the or
• body.
resistance value and the second band
turn offsystem• is
the multimeters;
Two digital second digit. The
see Fig. 5.
Using the
When plugging resistor
unplugging color
wires, first code similar to using scientific
third
all band represents
electronics the power
that are connected or will of ten multiplying the first two digits. The
become
fourth band represents the
connected
30 to the circuit. Lasttolerance.
updated January • 2013
If the24, Breadboard;
fourth band is seeabsent,
Fig. 7. it means
the tolerance
• Prior to making any is 20%.
change in Table 2.2 isalways
the circuit, a color code chart, from which one can
turn the voltage knob to its minimum setting (all • Several banana-tobanana wires.
tell the resistance of a resistor.
the way counterclockwise) and turn off the power

Example
Suppose the color code on a resistor is yellow, violet, orange and gold like
the resistor depicted in Fig. 2.11. What is its resistance and what is the
uncertainty of this resistance?
The value of the resistance can be found from the first three colors. From
the table above, the first digit is 4 (corresponding to the yellow band), the
Ohm’s Law 7

voltage by turning the “DC offset” knob. Note the

changes in the voltmeter and ammeter readings.
Vary the voltage in ten steps, from a low of about
0.2 V to the maximum possible (about 6 V). Record
the voltage and current in Table I, and compute the
resistance R from the ratio. Determine the average
value of the resistance.

2. Disconnect the circuit. Use the ohmmeter function

of the multimeter to make a direct reding of the
resistance used in part 1, R1 =−−−−− Ω. Compare
this with the resistance measured in part 1. Com-
Figure 2.13: Schematic
FIG. 12: for
Schematic for two2 resistors
resistors connected
connected in series.
in series. pare the results with the value from the color code
in the resistor and verify your results are within
errors. Choose another resistor on the board and
TABLE I: Measured voltage, current, and resistance. measure its resistance, R2 =−−−−− Ω.
Voltage (V) Current (A) R = V/i (Ω)
. Graphical test of 0.20
Ohm’s law for a constant resistor. Use the the series circuit shown in Fig. 1. Use
3. Consider
same circuit as in 0.78Step 1. Begin with a very small positive voltage law in the form i = V/R to predict the cur-
Ohm’s
rent in this circuit, if the power supply is set to 5 V.
and gradually increase1.36 the voltage. For five settings throughout the
(Remember, resistors in series add.)
range, record both1.94 the voltage reading from the voltmeter and the
current reading from 2.52 the ammeter in the top half of Data Table 4. Wire2.up the circuit shown in Fig. 12 and have your
3.10 instructor check the connections. Adjust the power
Decrease the supply 3.68
voltage to its minimum value and change the po-
supply so that the voltmeter reads 5 V. How does
larity of the voltage4.26
(make the electricity flow in the opposite direction the current compare with what you predicted in
through the circuit). 4.84 You do this by switching the wires connecting part 3?
your circuit to the power supply. Again, gradually increase the supply
5.42
6.00
voltage. For five settings throughout the range, record voltage 5. Remove
and the voltmeter connections. Connect
the voltmeter across R1 and record the reading,
current measurements in the bottom half of Data Table 2. Using V1 =all
−−−−− V. Now, connect the voltmeter across
of the data in Data IV. Table
ASSEMBLY2, plot
ANDVOPERATION R2 and record the reading, V2 =−−−−− V. What is
(vertical axis) vs. I (horizontal
axis). Have Kaleidagraph fit your data with a best fit line, display the relation between V1 , V2 , and the power supply
voltage of 5 V? Use Ohm’s law in the form V = iR
the equation1. of
Wire
theupbestthe fit
circuit
lineshown in Fig.
and the 11. Have your
uncertainties in the slopeto and
explain this result.
instructor check the connections before you plug in
intercept (don’t forget to briefly comment on your graph).
the power supply. If it is ok, turn it on, and vary the
Record the
slope and its uncertainty in your spreadsheet. Compare this to your
value for the resistance determined by Ohm’s Law (see Question 2).

Two resistors connected in series

. Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 2.13. Use two di⇥erent

resistors having resistances of approximately 1 k and 2 k . Set
the power supply voltage to the middle of its range and record your
measured voltage and current in Data Table 3.

Last updated January 24, 2013