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Ohm's Law Practical Report

Title: The effect of Length and Thickness on the Resistance of a Wire.

Intro:

Ohm’s Law was originated from Georg Ohm, a German physicist and a
mathematician. During the early 1800’s he was able to prove the simple relationship
between current, voltage and resistance in an electric circuit. (Britannica, 2015) Ohm’s
began his work by examining the decrease in the electromagnetic force produced by a wire
as it increases in length. Although, when his work was
published, the mathematical relationship was deduced and his
works were based purely on the experimental evidence that he
had arranged. (Julian Trubin, 2013)
However, Ohm’s Law was first mentioned when he
published his book called Die galvanische Kette,
mathematische bearbietet (The galvanic circuit investigated
mathematically), in which he gave his complete theory of
electricity. He later stated that the amount of steady current
through a material is directly proportional to the voltage
across the material, for some fixed temperature. (Julian
Figure 1: Georg Simon
Trubin, 2013) The law is mathematically expressed as R = V/I
Ohm
and during the same time, Ohm had also discovered the
www.britannica.com,
2015 distribution of electromotive force in an electric circuit.

Aim: To investigate how the length and thickness of a wire affects the resistance.

Hypothesis: It is predicted that as the cross section increases and the length increases, the
greater the resistance will be.

Dependent Variable: Resistance (ohm) and Current (ampere)

Independent Variable: Length (m) and Thickness (Cross Section Area m2)
Controlled Variable: Voltage (volt)
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Materials:
 Connecting wires
 6 Wire Samples
 1 Voltmeter
 1 Ammeter
 1 Small Ruler
 Wire cutters
 Power Cell
 Micrometer

Methods:
1. Prepare all the connecting wires with alligator clips attached on all ends.
2. Prepare two different wires with different thicknesses (0.38mm and 0.55mm) and
using the wire cutter, cut the two different wires into three wires, and this time vary
the length (somewhere between 5.0-20cm). There should be 6 wires in total.
3. Using the ruler, measure the wires to three significant figures shown on Table 1. Use
for all measured values in meters.
4. Using Figure 2 set up the voltmeter, the ammeter and the power cell and connect
them together with all the wires.
5. Set the power cell to 2 volts and make sure that it is not yet turned on.
6. Repeat the steps for each wire to find the measurements for currents, volts and the
resistance.
Safety Considerations:
- Work in a spacious area
- Not to touch the circuit when it is live

Figure 2: Set Up of the Experiment

Ammeter

Voltmeter

Power Cell

Wire Sample

Etelvina Sousa, 2015

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Results:

Table 1: Table of Results

Set of Wire Length Voltage Current (A) Resistance Cross Section Radius
readings (m) (V) (Ω) Area (m2) (mm)
1 A 1.75x10-2 1.62 1.05 1.54 3.61x10-2 0.190
2 A 1.31x10-2 1.59 1.19 1.34 3.61x10-2 0.190
3 A 6.00x10-1 1.35 2.19 0.616 3.61x10-2 0.190
4 B 1.64x10-2 1.41 2.00 0.705 7.56x10-2 0.275
5 B 1.12x10-2 1.34 2.49 0.538 7.56x10-2 0.275
6 B 6.20x10-1 1.09 3.91 0.0279 7.56x10-2 0.275

Figure 3: Experiment Being Conducted

(Etelvina Sousa, 2015) Figure 4: Three wires used from
Wire A
(Matthew O’Brien, 2015)

Figure 6: Micrometer
(Matthew O’Brien, 2015)

Figure 5: Three wires used

from Wire B
(Matthew O’Brien, 2015)
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Graph 1: Resistance (Ω) vs. Length (m)

Table 2: Resistance vs.

Resistance vs Length Length of Wire A
1.8 Length Resistance
1.6 0.175 1.54
1.4 0.131 1.34
Resistance (Ω )

1.2
0.06 0.616
1 Series2
0.8 Series1 Table 3: Resistance
0.6
Linear (Series2) vs. Length of Wire B
0.4 Length Resistance
0.2 Linear (Series1)
0.164 0.705
0
0.112 0.538
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
0.062 0.0279
Length (m)

Discussion:

Figure 7: Written Calculations

Finding the Resistance

R = V/I
R = 1.62/1.05
R = 1.54
Finding the Cross Section Area
A=r2
A =0.1902
A = 3.61x10-2

Figure 3 is the complete set of the conducted experiment. The ammeter was placed on the
far left in series order to receive the currents flowing through the positive side of the power
cell, while the voltmeter is placed parallel in the middle of the set up connect to the sample
wire used from either Wire A or Wire B. In this practical, a micrometer was needed (Figure
4) in order to measure the diameter of each given wire. In the figure, the scale on the
micrometer was hard to see and to collect the measurements. This can lead to making
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errors during the experiment. In this case it be classified as a systematic errors from the
micrometer and a human error based on reading the scale.

From this practical, an improvement that could be made from human errors are reading the
scales of the micrometer, the voltmeter and the ammeter, and an improvement that could
very much benefit the practical would be having the exact same lengths between Wire A
and Wire B.

In this practical, six wires used. Wire A had three wires with an equivalent length to the
other wires in Wire B however, these wire groups differ in their cross sectional areas, which
was measured with the micrometer.

Graph 1 shows the relationship between Resistance and Length of wires in Wire A and B.
Wire A labeled red on the graph have one short wire and two longer wires and Wire B is
labeled in blue however, Wire B had less resistance on the last wire. Shown in the graph,
coordinates (0.112,0.538) could be known as an outlier due to its location and the location
of the line of the best fit. According to the graph, the hypothesis was supported because, as
the length of the wire increases, the higher the resistance will be.

Ohm’s Law deals with the relationship between voltage and current in an ideal conductor
and Ohm’s Law can be used to solve calculations required in electrical circuits. This practical
shows that with all of the known variables along with an ammeter and a voltage, Ohm’s Law
could simply be used to find the resistance and the cross-sectional area.

From this practical, an improvement that could be made from human errors are reading the
scales of the micrometer, the voltmeter and the ammeter, and an improvement that could
very much benefit the practical would be having the exact same lengths between Wire A
and Wire B.

Conclusion:

The aim was completed and the hypothesis was supported in saying that as the cross-
section area and the length increases, the greater the resistance will be.
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References:

Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2015. Georg Simon Ohm. [ONLINE] Available

at:http://www.britannica.com/biography/Georg-Simon-Ohm. [Accessed 23 October 15].

Julian Trubin. 2013. Georg Simon Ohm: The Discovery of Ohm's Law. [ONLINE] Available
at:http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/ohmlawexperiments.html. [Accessed 23
October 15].

MSTE Illinois. 2015. Inventions and Inventors. [ONLINE] Available

at:http://mste.illinois.edu/nwaight/ohm/inventions.html. [Accessed 23 October 15].

Physics Classroom. 2015. Ohm's Law. [ONLINE] Available

at:http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circuits/Lesson-3/Ohm-s-Law. [Accessed 23
October 15].

Physics Tutorial. 2015. Ohm's Law. [ONLINE] Available

at:https://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/ohm/Q.ohm.intro.html. [Accessed 23 October
15].