Title: Internal Resistance

Aim: To determine the internal resistance in a circuit.

Apparatus: 12 V power supply, two multimeters (or an ammeter and voltmeter),

Rheostat, leads.

Diagram:
HOW THE CIRCUIT IN THE SIMULATION WAS SET UP TO
DETERMINE THE INTERNAL RESISTANCE IN THE CIRCUIT.

Method: The circuit was set up as shown. Starting with the rheostat on its
maximum resistance, Voltage readings, V, and Current readings, I was recorded.
The resistance of the rheostat was gradually reduced to its lowest resistance (zero)
and V and I were measured and recorded a minimum of 5 times over the range.
Results:
TABLE 1: FIVE PAIRS OF VOLTAGE, V/V AND CURRENT, I/A
READINGs FROM THE CIRCUIT SET UP TO INVESTIGATE INTERNAL
RESISTANCE.

Voltage, 11.98 11.96 11.94 11.92 11.90

V/V

Current, 0.016 0.04 0.02 0.08 0.10

I/A
Calculations:

1. The value of the internal resistance.

E = V + Ir , V = voltage ,E = E. m. f. , I = current , r = internal resistance

V = -Ir + E
y = xm + c
y= V
x=I
m = -r
c= E

Gradient m = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1)

Using points A and B from the graph (see graph above)
A ( 0.016, 11.98) → x 1 = 0.016 A , y 1 = 11.98 V
B ( 0.10, 11.90) → x2 = 0,10 A , y 2 = 11.90 V
m = (11.98-11.90) V / (0.016 - 0.10) A
m = 0.08 V/ (-0.084 ) A
m = - 0.952 Ω
r = -m
r = - ( -0.952 Ω)
r = 0.952 Ω
Hence the internal resistance is 0.952 Ω

2. The value of the Electromotive force

E=c
From graph , c = 12.00 V
Hence E = 12.00 V

3. The relationship between the voltage and current

There is an inverse relationship between the voltage and current in the circuit. As
the voltage decreases, the current increase. This is also reflected in the graph where
the gradient m, is negative.
Discussion: Current (I), with SI units Amperes (A), is defined as the rate of flow
of electrical charge. The unit for the charge is the Coulomb. The Coulomb is
defined as the total charge that would have flowed past a point in a circuit after one
(1) second if a total current of one (1) Ampere flowed through that point. The
potential difference (V) between two points in a circuit, with SI units Volts (V), is
defined as the total amount of electrical energy that is converted to other forms of
energy per Coulomb of charge, passing from one point to the other. The Volt is
defined as the total potential difference between two points in a circuit, when one
(1) Joule of electrical energy is converted to other forms of energy per Coulomb of
charge, passing from one point to the other.
The resistance (R) of a conductor, with units Ohms (Ω), is the ratio of the potential
difference across the conductor to the current flowing through the conductor. It is
the measure of the opposition provided to an electrical current. Therefore,
resistance is also a measure of hard it is for electrons to move in an electrical
circuit.
The emf of a source is defined as the voltage across its terminals when it is not
delivering current to an external circuit. (Open circuit voltage). It is numerically
equal to the work done per unit charge in converting other forms of energy into
electrical energy.
The terminal P.D. of a source is defined as the voltage across its terminals when it
is delivering current to an external circuit. (closed-circuit voltage). It is numerically
equal to the work done per unit charge in converting electrical energy into other
forms of energy.
The experiment was carried out to determine the internal resistance in the circuit
and to determine the relationship between voltage and current.
Any active device such as a battery has internal resistance to the internal
movement of charge. When the device is not connected to a circuit and thus does
not have a current through it, the potential difference between its terminals is equal
to its emf. However, when that device has a current through it, the potential
difference between its terminals is less than its emf. This is because part of the emf
is dropped across the internal resistance, and the rest is dropped across the load or
external resistance. The equation that describes this is E = V + Ir. The internal
resistance in the circuit was determined graphically using the slope of the graph
drawn to be 0.952 Ω. Based on the results obtained in the experiment, there was an
inverse relationship between the voltage across the battery and the current in the
circuit; As the voltage decreased, the current increased. This was also depicted in
the graph, where the slope is negative.
A possible source of error in the experiment may have included calibration errors
of the voltmeter and ammeter used to measure the voltage and current respectively.
This may have reduced the accuracy of the readings made and consequently
reduced the accuracy of the calculations.
Another source of error may have included the parallax error associated with
taking the current and voltage readings from the ammeter and voltmeter, which
may have also reduced the accuracy of the calculations.

A possible limitation in the experiment may have been temperature changes in the
environment which could have affected the resistance in the experiment as
resistance is directly proportional to temperature.

A precaution in the experiment could be to allow current readings on the ammeter

and voltage readings on the voltmeter to settle before taking the measurements.

Another precaution in the experiment may include performing replications of the

experiment for each resistor and taking the average measurements of the voltage
readings obtained between the trials /replications.
Another precaution in the experiment could be to not reverse the placements of the
positive and negative terminals of the capacitor once in the correct positions. This
may cause short-circuit and over-discharge of the capacitor which may result in
fires, overheating or explosion.

An assumption made in the experiment was that all of the measuring instruments
were functioning correctly.

Conclusion: The internal resistance in a circuit was determined to be 0.952 Ω.

There was an inverse relationship between voltage and current in the circuit.