INVESTIGATORY PROJECT MOVING

COIL GALVANOMETER

Submitted by:

Name:

Garv Class:
XII
Roll no.:
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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project entitled

“Report on Moving Coil Galvanometer” is
completed by Garv Chauhan under the
guidance of Mr. Shailesh Khurana which
are PGT
VIDYA physics of MODERN
NIKETAN
SCHOOL

Examiner’s Signature Teacher’s Signature

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of
gratitude to my teacher Mr. Shailesh Khurana
sir as well as our principal
Mr. Suresh sir Who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful project on
the topic “Report on Moving Coil
Galvanometer”, which also helped me in
doing a lot of Research and I Came to
know about so many things I am really
thankful to them.
Secondly, I would also like to thank my
parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finalizing this project within the limited
time frame

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 Index
S.no Title Page no.
1. Certificate 2
2. Acknowledgement 3
3. Index 4
4 Introduction 5
5 Principle and Construction 6-7
6 Theory 8-9
7 Advantages and Disadvantages 10
8 Sensitivity and Accuracy 11-13
9 Bibliography 14

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 Introduction
A galvanometer is an electromechanical instrument for detecting and
indicating electric current. A galvanometer works as an actuator, by

producing a rotary deflection (of a "pointer"), in response to electric

current flowing through a coil in a constant magnetic field. Early
galvanometers were not calibrated, but their later developments were used
as measuring instruments, called ammeters, to measure the current
flowing through an electric circuit.

Galvanometers developed from the observation that the needle of a

magnetic compass is deflected near a wire that has electric current flowing
through it, first described by Hans Oersted in 1820. They were the first
instruments used to detect and measure small amounts of electric

currents. André-Marie Ampère, who gave mathematical expression to

Ørsted's discovery and named the instrument after the Italian electricity
researcher Luigi Galvani, who in 1791 discovered the principle of the
frog galvanoscope – that electric current would make the legs of a dead
frog jerk.

Sensitive galvanometers have been essential for the development of

science and technology in many fields. For example, they enabled
long range communication through submarine cables, such as the
earliest Transatlantic telegraph cables, and were essential to
discovering the
electrical activity of the heart and brain, by their fine measurements
of current.

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 Principle
When a current carrying coil is suspended in a
uniform magnetic field it is acted upon by a torque.
Under the action of this torque, the coil rotates and
the deflection in the coil
in a moving coil galvanometer is directly
proportional to the current flowing through the coil.

Construction

The suspended type consists of a rectangular coil of thin insulated

copper wires having a large number of turns.
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 The coil is suspended between the poles of a powerful horseshoe
magnet by a suspension fibre of phosphor-bronze. A spring is attached
to the other end of the coil. The current enters the coil through the
fibre and leaves the coil through the spring.
The upper end of the suspension fiber is connected to a rotating screw
head so that the plane of the coil can be adjusted in any desired
position.
The horseshoe magnet has cylindrically concave pole-pieces. Due to
this shape, the magnet produces radial magnetic field so that
when coil rotates in any position its plane is always parallel to
the direction of magnetic field. When current flows through the
coil it gets deflected.

A soft iron cylinder is fixed inside the coil such that the coil can
rotate freely between the poles and around the cylinder. Due to
the high permittivity, the soft iron core increases the strength of
the radial magnetic field.
A small plane mirror M is fixed to the suspension fibre. This along
with lamp and scale arrangement is used to measure the
deflection of the coil.
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 Theory
Consider a rectangular coil PQRS of single turn having length ‘l’ and
breadth ‘b’ suspended in a uniform magnetic field of induction B
such that the plane of the coil is parallel to the magnetic field. Let
‘I’ be the current through the coil.

• The sides PS and QR being parallel to the magnetic field do not

experience any force, but the sides PQ and RS being
perpendicular to the magnetic
field experience force. The force experienced by each side is given by
F
=BIl
• By Fleming’s left-hand rule these forces are opposite in
direction. As these two forces are equal and opposite they form
what is called as a couple and due to which a torque acts on
the coil which tries to deflect the coil. The deflection torque is
given by,
Torque = Force x Perpendicular distance between the forces.

τ=Fxb

τ=BIl×b

But l τ b = A, the area of the coil

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τ=BIA

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 If the coil has ‘n’ turns, then the deflecting torque is given by

∴ τ = n BIA

• Under the action of this torque, the plane of the coil rotates
through an angle θ before coming to rest. Due to the radial
magnetic field, the plane of the coil is always parallel to the
direction of magnetic field. Thus at any position, the deflecting
torque has constant magnitude. The rotation of the coil
produces a twist in the fibre which produces a restoring torque
which is
directly proportional to the angle of deflection θ.

τ∝θ

∴τ=kθ
Where k is the torque per unit twist (or torsional constant) of the suspension
fiber.
• When the coil comes to rest i.e. when it attains equilibrium,
the restoring torque will balance the deflecting torque. So in
equilibrium position of the coil,
Deflecting torque = Restoring

torque. n B I A = k θ

The quantities in bracket are constant, therefore

∴I∝q

Thus in a moving coil galvanometer current in the coil is directly

proportional to the angle of deflection of the
coil.

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Advantages and Disadvantage
Advantages of Moving Coil Galvanometers:
• They are not affected by strong magnetic field.
• They have the high torque to weight ratio.
• They are very accurate and reliable.
• Their scales are uniform.

Disadvantages of Moving Coil Galvanometers:

• The change in temperature causes a change in restoring torque.
• Restoring torque cannot be easily changed.
• There is a possibility of damage to the phosphor bronze fiber or helical restoring
spring due to severe stresses.
• Such instruments can only be used for measurement of direct current
quantities and cannot be used for measurement of alternating current
quantities.

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Sensitivity and
Accuracy of a
Galvanometer
Sensitivity of Moving Coil Galvanometer:
• The sensitivity of moving coil galvanometer is defined as the
ratio of the change in deflection of the galvanometer to the
change in the current.

Sensitivity = dθ / di
• A galvanometer is said to be sensitive if it gives larger
deflection for a small current.

The current in moving coil galvanometer is given by

• Thus, the sensitivity of moving coil galvanometer can be increased by

o Increasing the number turns (n) of the coil, o

Increasing the area (A) of the coil,

o increasing the magnetic induction (B) and
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 o Decreasing the couple per unit twist (k) of the
suspension fiber.

Limitations to Increase in Sensitivity of Moving

Coil Galvanometer:
• If the turns of the coil are increased the length of wire
and hence the resistance of the coil increases.
• Increasing the area of the coil beyond limit makes the instrument
bulky.

• Increase in the number of turns and area of the coil increases

the load on suspension fiber. Hence spring higher value of k
should be used which decreases the sensitivity of the
galvanometer.
• Increasing the strength of magnetic induction leads to
increase in the weight of the apparatus.
• Decreasing the couple per unit twist of the spring leads to
decrease in the strength of the spring.

Accuracy of Moving Coil Galvanometer:

• The relative error in the measurement of current is given by di/i
For moving coil galvanometer, the current through it is given
by

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• Thus, the error in the measurement of current depends
only on the measurement of the deflection in the
galvanometer dθ.

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• For greater accuracy of the galvanometer, the ratio di / i
should be small. It is small when the deflection is large.
Thus for greater accuracy, the deflection in the
galvanometer should be large for small current in it.
• As the expression of accuracy does not contain the terms n, A, B
and k the accuracy is independent of the number of turns of
the coil, the area of the coil, the magnetic induction and
constant for the spring.

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Bibliography
www.google.com/
images
www.wikipedia.com
www.hemantmore.or
g.in
www.brainkart.com

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