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Abstract
In this experiment, we set out to determine what resistance was and how it plays a role in
different objects and circuits. The first task was to determine if three objects, a light bulb, a wire,
and a diode, were ohmic or not. It was determined that the wire was ohmic while the light bulb
and the diode were not ohmic. Next, we looked at measuring resistance using a digital
multimeter (DMM). Specifically, we determined the relationship between resistance and length
and resistance and area. It was found that as the length increases, the resistance increases and as
the area increases, the resistance decreases. Finally, resistors were wired both in series and in
parallel to determine the effects on voltage and current. The resistors in series created a larger
resistance while the resistors in parallel created a smaller resistance.

Goals of Experiment
The goal of the experiment was to determine what a resistor is and how it works in a
circuit. This was done by first looking at common items and determining if they were ohmic or
not. Next, resistance was measured with varying lengths and areas of wire as well as in series
and parallel circuit combinations.

Introduction
Resistance is how hard it is for an electric current to pass through an object, usually a
conductor. The higher the resistance, the more difficult it is for the electric current to move
though the object. Resistance can be caused by a physical resistor, which dissipates energy into
heat, or it can be a result of the length and diameter (and therefore area) of a certain substance.
An important quality of substances regarding resistance is whether or not they are ohmic. An
ohmic substance is an object that follows Ohm’s Law, which states that the resistance is equal to
the voltage divided by the current. A simple way to tell if an object is ohmic or not is by creating
a voltage versus current graph. If the graph goes though the origin and is linear, it is ohmic. It is
important to know whether an object is ohmic because if it is, the resistance is constant no matter
what the voltage or current are. This value is then useful for determining how resistance changes
with respect to the length of a substance and the cross-sectional area of a substance. By knowing
these three values (resistance, length, and area) of a certain object, a property of that material,
known as resistivity, can be found. Resistivity quantifies how difficult it is for electric current to
pass through that specific material. All the above key ideas can be applied to real-life examples,
such as how the circulatory system pumps blood through the body or how water and electricity
gets to houses from larger water and electrical plants, respectively.

Theory and Derivations

If an object is ohmic, it abides by Ohm’s Law, which is the relationship between
resistance, voltage, and current. Ohm’s Law is

V
R= (1)
I

where R is resistance, V is voltage, and I is current. When voltage versus current is graphed and it
comes out linear with one point going through the origin, this is an ohmic object. The slope of
this graph gives the resistance of that object. These ohmic devices can then be tested for the

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relationship between the resistance, the length of the object, and the area of the object. This
equation is given by

l
R= ρ (2)
A

where ρ is resistivity, l is length, and A is area. By finding the resistance and knowing the
length and area of a certain object, the resistivity can be found, which is a property of that
specific material and tells how difficult it is for that material to have an electric current pass
through it. Because the diameter was what was given to us, we had to calculate area using the
equation

A=π r 2 (3)

where r is the radius of the wire.

Resistors can be set up in a series or a parallel circuit. Depending on the type of circuit,
the total resistance is calculated differently. For resistors in series, the total resistance is

Rseries =R1 + R2 +. . (4)

so that the total resistance is simply the sum of all the resistors’ resistances. For resistors in
parallel, the total resistance is

1 1 1 (5)
= + +. .
R¿ R1 R2

so that one over the total resistance is the sum of the inverse of all the resistors’ resistances. With
these two equations, it can be seen that the resistance of a circuit in series will be lower than the
resistance of a circuit in parallel.
Finally, a percent error calculation could be done when determining how far off our
measured resistance values were from the stated resistance values written next to the resistors.
This calculation, given by

% Error= | ActualValue−Theoretical
Theoretical Value
Value
|∙ 100 (6)

will allow us to see the error of our measurement using the DMM compared to the known values
of the resistors.

Procedure

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Figure 1. Figure for first part of the lab. Shows the power supply, the connecting wires, and the three objects (lightbulb, wire,
and diode) to test if they were ohmic or not.

The first part of the lab required us to determine if three different objects were ohmic or
not. The set-up is shown in Figure 1. The three objects were a lightbulb, a strand of wire, and a
diode. One end of each connecting wire was attached to the power supply, while the other ends
were attached to the object via alligator clips. The power supply was changed to different
voltages and the resulting current was recorded along with the voltage it was set at. This same
procedure was done for all three materials. The data was compiled into Tables 1, 2, and 3 for the
lightbulb, the wire, and the diode, respectively. Then, the voltage versus the current was graphed
for each, as seen in Graphs 1, 2, and 3. These graphs allowed us to determine if the object was
ohmic or not.

Figure 2. Figure for second part of the lab. Shows the board with various wires, a meter stick, a board with known resistors, and
the DMM to measure resistance.

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Figure 2 shows the basic set-up for the next part of the lab. This task was to actually
measure the resistance of various things. First, to help us get comfortable with measuring
resistance, we measured the resistance of resistors of which the resistance was known. Table 4
shows the known value of resistance along with our calculated value. Because there was a known
value for a value we calculated, a percent error calculation could be done, and is seen in the same
table. Next, we set out to determine the relationship between the length of a wire, the diameter of
a wire, and the resistance of that wire. When testing length, we kept the diameter the same, so
only one of the wires was used (we happened to use the bottom one). The resistance was
measured at various lengths ranging from 0.01m to 1m. Table 5 shows this data. Resistance of
varying areas was then tested using all five of the wires. We decided to keep the length at 0.5m
and moved the alligator clips from one wire to the next at that length. The diameter was given,
and the area was calculated from it. The results of this test are seen in Table 6.

Figure 3. Figure for third part of the lab. Shows the three circuits (series, parallel, and both), the digital multimeter used to
measure voltage and resistance, and the ammeter used to measure current.

The final part of the experiment, shown in Figure 3, required us to observe how resistors
behave in a series circuit, a parallel circuit, and a circuit with a combination of these two. This
illustration is simplified by just showing the resistors as zig-zag lines (general symbol when
drawing circuits) when in reality some of the connecting wire combinations were a lot more
complicated. When the resistors were in series and in parallel (separate), we had to measure the
voltage between certain intervals using the DMM to see their relationship. The same thing was
done with checking currents at various spots using the ammeter. The total resistance of each
circuit was also determined using the DMM to see how the different circuit combinations
affected the total resistance. Finally, a circuit wired both in parallel and in series was looked at.
The total resistance had to be predicted using the same logic as the two circuits separately. The
actual total resistance was measured to the DMM to see how close it was to what we predicted.

Sample Calculations and Results

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The first part of the lab did not require any specific calculations. We simply had to
determine if the object was ohmic or not. Our results were that the light bulb and the diode were
not ohmic, but the wire was. This means that the wire follows Ohm’s Law, and obeys Equation 1.
It is possible to plug in any of the voltage and matching current values into the equation to
determine the resistance of this wire.

V 2V
R= = =22.22 Ω (7)
I 0.09 A

For part two of the lab, more calculations had to be completed. First, the percent errors of
the various resistors were calculated from the stated and measured values.

% Error= | ActualValue−Theoretical
Theoretical Value
Value
|∙ 100=|
100 Ω−105.1 Ω
100 Ω |∙ 100=5.1% (8)

This indicates that there was an error of 5.1% for this particular resistor when measuring the
value with the DMM. The next section in this part had us determine the relationship between
resistance, length, and area. However, we were given the diameter of the wires rather than the
area, so Equation 3 was used to determine the area of each wire.

0.00025 m 2
A=π r 2=π ( ) =4.91 x 10−8 m 2 (9)
2

These relationships resulted in us discovering the same equation as Equation 2 above. Because
we now had the length, area, and resistance, we can calculate the resistivity of that material by
rearranging Equation 2.
−8 2
RA (0.6 Ω)( 4.91 x 10 m ) (10)
ρ= = =2.95 x 10−6 Ωm
l 0.01 m

This value will be the same for all objects of that material. Because its resistivity is very low, that
means this material is a good conductor
The last task was looking at series and parallel combinations of resistors. Most of the
values found in this section were from measuring voltages and resistances using the DMM and
from measuring currents using the ammeter. By looking at what we had learned about how each
combination affects the total resistance, we could predict what the resistance of the circuit with
both series and parallel resistors would be. This required combining Equations 4 and 5. The first
resistors were in parallel, so this is the equation that is used first.

1 1 1 1
= + +..= =66.67 Ω
R¿ R1 R2 1 1 (11)
+
100 Ω 200 Ω

These two parallel resistors are then run in series with the final resistor in the circuit. So, the
calculated value for the resistance in parallel can then be plugged into the equation describing
resistors in series to get the total resistance.

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Rseries =R1 +R2 +..=66.67 Ω+100 Ω=166.67 Ω (12)

When the resistance was actually measured, we got a value of 153.8Ω. This means that we can
do another percent error calculation do determine how far off our measured value was from the
calculated value.

% Error= | ActualValue−Theoretical
Theoretical Value
Value
|∙ 100=|
153.8 Ω−166.67 Ω
166.67 Ω |∙100=7.72 % (13)

Discussion and Conclusions

Determining if an object is ohmic or not was the task of the first part of this experiment.
By observing Graphs 1, 2, and 3, it becomes clear whether or not the objects are ohmic. The light
bulb is not ohmic because it is not linear. The current begins to level off at higher voltages. The
wire is ohmic because the graph is linear and passes through the origin of the graph. The diode
was also not ohmic because the entire graph is not linear. With positive voltages, the current
increases in a linear fashion, but this is not true for negative voltages. Diodes have a positive and
negative end and it only works a certain way when plugged in to a power source. It works to
control the direction of current flow, so therefore current must only run in one direction.
Measuring resistance was the second task. The first part was to simply get a feel for using
the DMM to measure the resistance by measuring the resistances of resistors of which their
resistances were known. When comparing the stated value with the measured value, only one of
the resistors had zero percent error. The other percent errors were low, but they were not zero.
This could be attributed to errors explained later. It was then determined that resistance, length,
and area of a wire were related. Specifically, the length is directly proportional to resistance
while the area is inversely proportional to the resistance. To evaluate this relationship further, the
log of each value was taken and graphed in Graphs 4 and 5. By taking the log of the values, we
were able to generate a line of best fit for the data. The slope of this line represents the exponent
on the independent variables and indicates its relationship to the resistance. For example, Graph
4 plots log L versus log R. The slope generated is 0.8029. The first thing we notice is that this
number is positive, meaning that these variables have a direct relationship. Second, this number
tells us the exact relationship between length and resistance. If the length is raised to the 0.8029
power, this gives the resistance (given that the area is constant). The same conclusions can be
made in Graph 5. The variables have an inverse relationship, and the area should be taken to the
-0.7881 power to get the resistance as long as length is constant. The exact relationship is given
in Equation 2. This equation includes a value known as the resistivity of the material. This value
is specific to a given material, similar to the density or the melting point.
Finally, we looked at how resistance changed when resistors were connected in series, in
parallel, and in a combination of the two. The first circuit was a series circuit. A 100Ω resistor
was followed by a 200Ω resistor. It was determined that the total resistance is greater than either
individual resistor. This makes sense because of Equation 4. Next, it was determined that the
current at various points was the same (0.007A). Again, this makes sense because in a series
circuit, the current remains constant at all points on the circuit. Finally, the voltage over three
different intervals was determined. The first interval was over the first resistor, and this was
found to be 0.70V. The voltage over the second resistor was 1.41V. Finally, a voltage of 2.11V
was found over both resistors. It makes sense that each individual voltage adds up to the final

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voltage. The second voltage is greater than the first because this is the 200Ω resistor. According
to Ohm’s Law, if the resistance increases, voltage also increases. This is why the voltage is split
unevenly between the two resistors. The same data was determined for the parallel circuit. The
top resistor was 100Ω and the bottom resistor was 200Ω. For a parallel circuit, the total
resistance is less than either individual resistor, as seen by Equation 5. This is what was
observed. The currents were then measured at various points in the circuit. It was observed that
the current measurement at the points before the resistors were all the same value of 2.8A. All
the points after the resistors were also all the same, but this time had a value of 0.024A. The
current decreased after going through the resistors. When voltage was measured over several
segments, they were all the same value of 1.73V. Voltage is constant in a parallel circuit, so this
result makes sense. Finally, a combination of a parallel and series circuit was put together with
the resistors. The same parallel set-up of resistors was used and was then followed by a 100Ω
resistor. The only objective of this part was to predict the total resistance and then actually
measure it. It turned out that there was a 7.72% error between our predicted value and our
measured value. This could be due to errors explained next.
One of the things that could have caused error in our measurements was if the wires were
not working correctly. Some of the wires do not transmit the current as effectively as they should
be. Also, we were assuming that the wires had no resistance, when in reality they probably had
some resistance that contributed to the values we got for resistance, voltage, and current. Another
possible error could have been connecting the circuit wrong. Some of the circuits at the end,
especially the circuit that had both parallel and series parts, got somewhat complicated to
connect correctly. Then it was difficult to find the right spots to connect the DMM and ammeter,
so sometimes we were unsure if we were getting the correct measurements. The results we got
made sense, but it did interfere with our timing and the actual values might be slightly different
than what we observed.

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Light Bulb
Voltage (V) Current (A)
0 0
3 0.09
6 0.14
9 0.18
12 0.21
15 0.24
18 0.27
-3 -0.09
-6 -0.14
-9 -0.18
-12 -0.21
-15 -0.24
-18 -0.27
Table 1. Current running through the light bulb at various voltages.

Wire
Voltage (V) Current (A)
0 0
2 0.09
4 0.18
6 0.27
8 0.37
10 0.46
12 0.55
-2 -0.09
-4 -0.18
-6 -0.27
-8 -0.37
-10 -0.46
-12 -0.55
Table 2. Current running through the wire at various voltages.

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Diode
Voltage (V) Current (A)
0 0
2 0.04
4 0.12
6 0.19
8 0.26
10 0.34
12 0.41
-2 0
-4 0
-6 0
-8 0
-10 0
-12 0
Table 3. Current running through the diode at various voltages.

Various Resistors
Stated Resistance (Ω) Measured Resistance (Ω) Percent Error (%)
100 105.1 5.1
200 200 0
1000 1006 0.6
10000 10030 0.3
30000 30500 1.67
100000 95800 4.2
Table 4. Measured values of various resistors compared to the stated values of those same resistors.

How Resistance Changes with Length

Diameter (m) Area (m2) Length (m) Resistance (Ω)
0.00025 4.90874E-08 0.01 0.6
0.00025 4.90874E-08 0.1 2.4
0.00025 4.90874E-08 0.3 7.1
0.00025 4.90874E-08 0.6 13.9
0.00025 4.90874E-08 0.8 18.8
0.00025 4.90874E-08 1 22.9
Table 5. Resistance values as the length of the wire was changed. Diameter/area remained constant.

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How Resistance Changes with Area

Length (m) Diameter (m) Area (m2) Resistance (Ω)
0.5 0.0002 3.14159E-08 12.8
0.5 0.00025 4.90874E-08 11.8
0.5 0.00038 1.13411E-07 5.1
0.5 0.0005 1.9635E-07 3.4
0.5 0.00065 3.31831E-07 2.2
Table 6. Resistance values as the diameter/area of the wire was changed. Length remained constant.

Light Bulb
0.3

0.2

0.1
Current (A)

0
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

Voltage (V)

Graph 1. Current running through the light bulb at various voltages. This object is not ohmic.

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Wire
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2
Current (A)

0
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

Voltage (V)

Graph 2. Current running through the wire at various voltages. This object is ohmic.

Diode
0.45

0.4

0.35

0.3
Current (A)

0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15

Voltage (V)

Graph 3. Current running through the diode at various voltages. This object is not ohmic.

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How Resistance Changes with Length

1.6

1.4
f(x) = 0.8 x + 1.31 1.2
R² = 0.99
1

0.8
log R (Ω)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0
-0.2

-0.4

log L (m)

Graph 4. The relationship between the resistance and the length of the wire. Slope of best fit line is the exponent of the length,
indicating how resistance varies with length. Positive slope indicates a direct relationship between length and resistance.

How Resistance Changes with Area

1.2
f(x) = − 0.79 x − 4.76
R² = 0.98
1

0.8
log R (Ω)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
-7.6 -7.4 -7.2 -7 -6.8 -6.6 -6.4

log A (m2)

Graph 5. The relationship between the resistance and the area of the wire. Slope of best fit line is the exponent of the area,
indicating how resistance varies with area. Negative slope indicates an inverse relationship between area and resistance.

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