The Effect of Measuring Devices on Voltage and Current

Objective:
The purpose of lab 4, Instrument Characteristics, was to determine the effect that a
measuring device, such as a voltmeter of ammeter, has on a circuit.
Procedure:
Ammeter:
First, the following circuit was created. Note that R
m
is the resistance of the measuring
device and R
s
is the resistance of the variable resistor. It had multiple values.


Figure 1: Circuit to determine internal resistance of ammeter.
For the entire experiment, the current range on the ammeter was set to 2mA. The current I was
then determined in the circuit with the variable resistor, R
s
, removed. The variable resistor was
adjusted until the current reading was approximately half of its original value. The data was
recorded.
It was important for the next section to remove the voltage source every time the variable
resistor was changed. First, the voltage source was adjusted to 2.0V. The following circuit was
created, where A represents the ammeter and R
s
is the variable resistor.


Figure 2: Circuit to determine effect of ammeter on circuit
The variable resistor was initially set to R
s
= 1k. The power supply was turned on and the
current value from the ammeter was recorded. This process was preformed two more times, at
500 and 75, remembering each time to disconnect the power supply before altering the
circuit.
Voltage:
The voltage of the voltmeter was set to a scale of 20V, and was not adjusted for the
entirety of the step. The AC/DC setting was set to DC. With the power supply disconnected, the
following circuit was created. Note that R
s
is the resistance of the variable resistor and V
represents the voltmeters placement in the circuit.

Figure 3: Circuit used to determine internal resistance of voltmeter.
Initially, the variable resistor was set to 0. The power supply was connected and the output
voltage was observed and recorded as V
0
. The variable resistor was then adjusted to its max
setting, making sure that the measured voltage did not fall below V
0
. The voltage was
recorded as V
m
, and the above measurements were used to calculate R
m
, the internal resistance of
the voltmeter.
For the final experiment, it was important to set the resistors before power was applied to
the circuit. Failure to do this could have resulted in blown fuses. The following circuit was set
up. Note that R is a variable resistor and V represents the voltmeter.

Figure 4: Circuit used to determine effect of Voltmeter on circuit.
Initially, the variable resistor was set to R=10k . The voltage across the resistor was recorded.
With the power supply disconnected, the value of R was changed to 500k . The voltage across
the resistor was recorded. The process was repeated once more for R=1M. Using the
theoretical calculations and the experimental measurements, the effect of the voltmeter on the
circuit was determined.
Theory:
Ammeter:
Theoretically, the resistance in an ammeter should be equal to zero. To determine why,
observe figure 1. If the ammeter is not introduced into the circuit, the current at R
s
and the 10k
resistor should be equal. This is because the circuit is series and current is equal across all
resistors in a series circuit is equal. If an ammeter is introduced to the circuit across R
s
and the
resistance is assumed to not equal 0, a parallel circuit is formed. Current is not equal across all
resistors when they are in parallel. The current will branch across both resistors proportional to
their resistance. In theory, the resistance of the ammeter is 0 and will not divert current away
from R
s
. In practice, the opposite occurs. The experimental internal resistance of the ammeter
can be determined by adjusting the variable resistor until the ammeter reads half of its original
value. At this point, R
s
=R
m
When 0.5I
new
=I
old
. If the resistance in the circuit was zero, a short
circuit would occur.
Voltmeter:
The resistance in a voltmeter should theoretically be infinite. In order for a voltmeter to
measure voltage, it must be in parallel with the point to be measured. By Kirchhoffs laws, the
current will split along each branch in the parallel circuit. More current will branch away though
the voltmeter if its resistance is low, leading to an inaccurate measurement. Therefore, the
resistance in voltmeters is extremely high to prevent current from branching away. The
experimental method to determine resistance in a voltmeter is similar to the method to find
resistance in an ammeter. In figure 3, the voltage V
0
was measured. This is the initial voltage
drop across the meter. The resistance in the variable resistor, V
s
is increased until the voltmeter
reads half of V
0
. At this point, the resistance of the meter is equal to the variable resistor.
Data:
Measured Values Calculated Values
I
old
0.996 mA 1.000 mA
I
new
0.497 mA 0.500 mA
R
m
96.00 0.000

Table 1: Theoretical and calculated internal resistances of ammeter


Rs Experimental [mA] Calculated Values [mA]
1.00 k 2.06 2.00
500 4.08 4.00
75.0 26.61 26.67

Table 2: Calculated and experimental currents from Figure 2
Experimental Values Theoretical Values
R
s
0.999 M Extremely High []
V
0
10.029 V 10.000 V
V
R
0.882 V 0.970 V
V
m
9.118 V 5.000 V
R
m
1.03 M infinity

Table 3: Data necessary to find internal resistance of Voltmeter
R Experimental Values [V] Calculated Values [V]
10.00 k 0.917 0.910
500.0 k 8.337 8.333
999.0 k 9.084 9.100

Table 4: Effect of internal resistance on voltage
Observations:
Much as in quantum mechanics, it is impossible to observe a system without changing it.
This is also true for measuring current and voltage in circuits. The internal resistance of a
voltmeter is ideally infinity. It is, however, impossible to deal with infinites outside of theory, so
in practice voltmeters are designed with extremely high internal resistances. The voltmeter used
in lab, for example, had an internal resistance of 1.03 M. Even with this resistance, there were
differences in experimental and calculated voltage values, as can be seen in Table 4. As the
internal resistance approaches infinity, the amount of current flowing through the voltmeter will
lessen, leading to a more accurate measurement. Ideally, an ammeter should have zero
resistance. This is because at lower resistances, higher amount of currents will flow though the
meter, as the ammeter is in parallel with the other resistor. The internal resistance of the ammeter
was found to be 96 . The discrepancies in table 2 can be explained by the internal resistance of
the ammeter. As the resistance of the ammeter approaches zero, the current measurements will
approach those of the theoretical calculations.


Conclusion:
The data demonstrated the effect that measuring current and voltage has on a system. The
higher the internal resistance of a voltmeter, the more accurate the measurement will be.
Inversely, the lower the internal resistance of an ammeter the more accurate the current
measurement will be.