This document describes an experiment using a circuit simulation to explore Ohm's Law and different circuit configurations. Students are asked to:
1. Construct simple series circuits with varying resistor values and record current and voltage measurements to show that as resistance increases, current decreases.
2. Build series and parallel circuits, measuring voltages and currents. In series, the total voltage equals the sum of individual voltages. In parallel, resistors receive the same voltage but currents vary.
3. Replace circuit resistors with light bulbs to observe that bulb brightness depends on resistance in series but all light up in parallel. Parallel circuits are more widely used due to reliability if one branch fails.
This document describes an experiment using a circuit simulation to explore Ohm's Law and different circuit configurations. Students are asked to:
1. Construct simple series circuits with varying resistor values and record current and voltage measurements to show that as resistance increases, current decreases.
2. Build series and parallel circuits, measuring voltages and currents. In series, the total voltage equals the sum of individual voltages. In parallel, resistors receive the same voltage but currents vary.
3. Replace circuit resistors with light bulbs to observe that bulb brightness depends on resistance in series but all light up in parallel. Parallel circuits are more widely used due to reliability if one branch fails.
This document describes an experiment using a circuit simulation to explore Ohm's Law and different circuit configurations. Students are asked to:
1. Construct simple series circuits with varying resistor values and record current and voltage measurements to show that as resistance increases, current decreases.
2. Build series and parallel circuits, measuring voltages and currents. In series, the total voltage equals the sum of individual voltages. In parallel, resistors receive the same voltage but currents vary.
3. Replace circuit resistors with light bulbs to observe that bulb brightness depends on resistance in series but all light up in parallel. Parallel circuits are more widely used due to reliability if one branch fails.
This document describes an experiment using a circuit simulation to explore Ohm's Law and different circuit configurations. Students are asked to:
1. Construct simple series circuits with varying resistor values and record current and voltage measurements to show that as resistance increases, current decreases.
2. Build series and parallel circuits, measuring voltages and currents. In series, the total voltage equals the sum of individual voltages. In parallel, resistors receive the same voltage but currents vary.
3. Replace circuit resistors with light bulbs to observe that bulb brightness depends on resistance in series but all light up in parallel. Parallel circuits are more widely used due to reliability if one branch fails.
Ohm’s Law is a mathematical relationship between voltage, current and
resistance in an electrical circuit.
Ohm’s Law: V = I x R
Here V, is for voltage measured in volts (V), I, is for current measured in amperes (A) and R, is for resistance measured in Ohms (Ω).
Part I – Exploring Ohm’s Law using constant voltage.
Procedure
1. Click on url below to open simulation page if you have not already done so. https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual lab/latest/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab_en.html 2. Click and drag circuit components from sides of simulation screen to get them into work area. To measure current flowing through a circuit (and all its components) an ammeter must be placed in the circuit, meaning current flowing through circuit must pass through ammeter also (see Fig. 1 below). To measure voltage supplied to a circuit component, voltmeter must be connected across the component (see Fig. 1 below).
3. Construct on your simulation screen simple series circuit as shown in Figure 1
below. Click on resistor to change resistance value to a low number between 3 ohms to 5 ohms for this first run of your experiment. Figure 1: Circuit (i) for exploring Ohm’s Law
4. Select from onscreen to show ’Values’ and any other display
combination you prefer. Keep wire resistivity tiny. Keep battery resistance at zero.
5. Click on ‘Switch’ to close. Record in Table 1. Below, values for current in
circuit as shown on ammeter and voltage across resistor as shown on voltmeter.
Table 1: Resistance I and Current (I) Measurements
Serial Resistance (R measured in Ω) Current (I measured in A)
1 3.3 Ω 2.73 A
2 4.5 Ω 2.00 A
3 5.2 Ω 1.73 A
4 6.0 Ω 1.50 A
5 7.0 Ω 1.29 A
6 8.1 Ω 1.11 A
7 9.0 Ω 1.00 A
8 10.0 Ω 0.90 A
6. Open switch and change resistance of resistor. Close switch and record values. Repeat for seven to eight data points the procedure of changing resistor’s resistance value and recording in Table 1 above, resistance and current values after switch are closed. 7. Did you observe that as you increased the value of the resistance in your circuit your recorded current value was changing? Did your circuit current increase or decrease in value as you increased circuit resistance? Yes, the circuit value is changing as the resistance value is increasing. As the value of the resistor’s resistance is increasing, the current’s value is also decreasing, as such the resistance and current are inversely proportional to each other. 8. Plot a graph of resistance R on your Y – axis versus current I, on your X – axis. 9. Graph should look like this after you have done your best fit: RESISTANCE-CURRENT RELATIONSHIP 3
2.5
2 current
1.5
0.5
0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
RESISTANCE
Part II – Series and Parallel Circuits
A – Resistors in series 1. Use the circuit diagram in formation in Figure 3 below to guide you on how to construct your series circuit and how to connect your voltmeter to measure voltage across each resistor.
Figure 3: Schematic of series circuits showing voltmeter connection
2. Reset simulation screen by clicking on orange button in lower right corner of
screen. 3. Let resistor 1, have resistance such that: 2.0 Ω < R1 < 12.0 Ω and resistor 2 have resistance such that: 20.0 Ω < R2 < 100.0 Ω. Click and drag circuit components to construct a series circuit as in Fig. 3 schematic. Your series circuit will be like Figure 4, simulation screenshot seen below. Figure 4: Simulation series circuit
4. Record your battery voltage. Record all other data in Table 2 below. Table 2: Series Circuit Data Resistor Resistance. Voltage across Current through. Battery voltage, VBattery
R1 8.8 Ω VR1 = 1.42 V 0.16 A 9.0 V
R2 47.0 Ω VR2 = 7.58 V 0.16 A 9.0 V
R 1 + R2 55.8 Ω VR1 + R2 = 9.0 V 0.16 A 9.0 V
5. Is VBattery the same as VR1 + R2? Why is this happening?
Yes, the voltage of the battery is same as the combined voltage of VR1 + R2. It is because the total voltage of a series circuit is equal to the voltage 1 and voltage 2, its just that the total voltage of the battery is divided by the 2 resistors. And we can get the value of each voltage by mathematically expressing it as V=I/R. 6. Replace your resistors in this series circuit by two light bulbs. Turn on the switch. Observe what happens. Are the light bulbs brightly lit? Why? Yes, but the bright of the light depends on the resistance of the bulb. As such, as the resistance increases the bright of each bulb also increase. It is also because the higher the resistance also means the higher the voltage of an individual bulb possess.
B - Resistors in parallel. Resistors in parallel have the same battery voltage across each resistor in the circuit. This is unlike resistors in series. Additionally, each resistor in a parallel circuit configuration has its unique value of current passing through it. The sum of the currents passing through branch of a parallel circuit is equal to the total current flowing through the circuit.
Figure 5: Schematic for voltage measure across resistors in parallel
Figure 6: Current flow in resistors in parallel
1. Construct your resistors (R1 ≠ R2) in parallel circuit in your simulation. 2.
Record data for resistors in parallel circuit in Table 3 below. Table 3: Resistors in parallel Circuit Data Resistor Resistance, Ω Voltage across, V Current through, A Battery voltage, VBattery
R1 12.0 Ω VR1 = 10 V 0.83 A 10.0 V
R2 44.0 Ω VR2 = 10 V 0.26 A 10.0 V
R 1 + R2 9.43 Ω VR1 + R2 = 10 V 1.06 A 10.0 V
3. Use your data to validate the following relationships:
For resistors in parallel, same as: RTotal = R1+2 = (R1 + R2)/(R1R2)
4. Replace your resistors in parallel in your simulation by two light bulbs. Turn on the switch and observe the light bulbs. Are they brightly lit? Why?
Yes, they’re brightly lit, but the other bulb is not that bright like the bulb who has low resistance. I believe that the reason why the other bulb is so bright is because it has lower resistance than the other bulb that has 44 ohms in it.
5. Which circuit configuration do you think is widely use in homes, offices and industrial systems? Why?
Parallel circuit connection. One of the reasons is because every
circuit will have the same voltage making the bulb much brighter . Also, because it much reliable so that even if one of the circuits broke the other circuit will still continue to work since their current is not the only circuit connected to the battery not like a like the series one.
