DISCUSSION OF THEORY

I. HISTORY

Until 1800, there was no concept of current and resistance. Electrostatic discharges were
the only types of current discovered at the time. However, du Fay and Franklin proposed two
fluids, positive and negative, as well as one fluid theory of electricity, which allowed it to flow.
Volta invented the first continuous current source, his famous "pile" of paired copper-zinc plates
interspaced with moistened cardboard, in 1800. Brown's Electric Current in Early Nineteenth-
Century French Physics provided a comprehensive survey of the state of the art between Volta
and Ohm. Volta claimed that an electromotive contact force propelled the electric fluid into
"perpetual impulsion." But, at the same time, the only developed theory was electrostatic, and all
measurements and measuring instruments were based on it. Hence, Volta’s “courant '' was
nothing but an empty word, and his “theory” was soon massaged beyond recognition by
authoritative commision of the French Academy consisting of Laplace, Coulomb, Fourcroy,
Guytonn, and Biot. 
Biot wrote the report that reflected the commission's views, and unsurprisingly, it
described the pile as a sequencer of electrostatic discharges rather than a current source. But,
unlike Volta's theory, one could use electrostatic instruments like Coulomb's electroscope to
measure the "quantity of electricity" (charge) and the "exciting force", "intensity", and   "tension"
(roughly voltage between the pile's terminals). To the extent that resistance was present, Biot
identified it in the pile with "isolating lengths." His electric quasi-statics remained the orthodoxy
until the 1820s, and there was no way to measure current with any precision within it. With
Oersted's discovery of the current affecting magnetic needles and the invention of the
galvanometer based on it, the winds of change blew. But the change maker was Ampere. As an
outsider to the French scientific establishment he was less reserved about dismissing Biot's quai-
static picture, and going back to Volta's original intuitions, but with better instruments.
Ampere proposed a perpetual circular movement of the two electricities in the wire
caused by the pile, which he dubbed "reunions in the wire." It's worth noting that he first
proposed his famous theory of molecular currents in a magnet, the reunions in infinitesimal
circles around each molecule, where it was obvious that the motion had to be continuous to
prevent immediate recombination, and then applied the idea to voltaic circuits. Ampere's theory,
on the other hand, was a hybrid, as it distinguished between electrostatic and electrodynamic
effects in the wire. The pile's tension was observed to be electrostatic in nature, associated with
attraction/repulsion and sparks, and it was observed (and measured) to vanish when the pile's
terminals were connected by a wire. Chemical and magnetic effects were observed to be
produced by the current. A well-known experiment that involved connecting several piles in a
series produced magnified tension but essentially the same current as measured by the magnetic
needle.

In 1827, an electric current that ran the fans and kettles in our home was guided by
Ohm’s law. Ohm’s law is a fundamental rule of electric flow that was given by George Ohm.
The fact that the law was formulated nearly 200 years ago, this law still holds true today and has
relevance for almost all of us in our daily lives demonstrates its broad applicability. Ohm’s law
was introduced in Georg Ohm’s book The Galvanic Chain, Mathematically Worked Out, but
despite being so fundamental to the physics of electricity, this law wasn’t well-received by other
scientists and critics at the time. The German education minister of that time considered Georg
Ohm’s findings as heresies and said that, " a physicist who professed such heresies was
unworthy to teach science." Ohm lived in poverty in the years that followed, tutoring privately in
Berlin until he was appointed director of the Polytechnic School of Nuremberg in 1833. The
Royal Society of London honored him with the Copley medal in 1841, recognizing the
significance of his discovery. They accepted him as a member the following year. Ohm's lifelong
dream was realized in 1849, just 5 years before his death, when he was appointed professor of
Experimental Physics at the University of Munich. In comparison to the previous law given by
Peter Barlow, who had previously and incorrectly concluded that the amount of current was
proportional to the cross-sectional area of the conductor, Ohm's law became widely accepted
and, aside from the science of electricity, it also proved to have useful applications to the design
of telegraph systems.

II.  DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS

There are three basic measurements which can be made in an electrical circuit. Voltage
and current are the first two, and resistance is the third. 
Resistance is a measure of opposition to current flow in an electrical circuit. Resistance is
the hindrance to the flow of electrons in material. While potential difference across the conductor
encourages the flow of electrons, resistance discorages it. The rate at which charge flows
between two terminals is a combination of these two factors. 
Resistance is represented with the uppercase R. It is measured in Ohms, symbolized by
the Greek letter Omega (Ω). Occasionally, resistances less than an ohm are encountered, these
measurements are measured in milliohms or thousands of an ohm. In Calculating the Resistance
the right formula is R=Voltage/Current kΩ.
All materials resist current flow to some degree. They fall into one of two broad
categories which are conductors and insulators. Conductors are materials tha0t offer very little
resistance where electrons can move easily. Some of the examples of conductors are silver,
copper, gold and aluminum. Insulators are materials that present high resistance and restrict the
flow of electrons. Some examples of insulators are rubber, paper, glass, wood and plastic. 
If two different conductors are placed in a circuit, then the amount of current found to
flow in each may not be the same. There are a number of reasons for this:
1. The first is the ease with which electrons are able to move within the structure of
the material. If the electrons are bound tightly to the crystal lattice, then it will not
be easy to pull them free so that there can be a drift of electrons in a particular
direction. In other materials there are very many free electrons drifting randomly
around the lattice. It is these materials that allow a current to flow more easily.
2. Another factor that affects the electrical resistance of an item is its length. The
shorter the length of a material, the lower its overall resistance. 
3. The third is the cross sectional area. The wider the cross sectional area, the lower
the resistance as there is more area through which the current can flow. 
    In most cases conductors are required to carry current with as little resistance as possible. As a
result copper is widely used because current flows easily within its structure. Also, its cross
sectional area is made enough to carry the current without any undue resistance. 
Resistance measurements are normally taken to indicate the condition of a component or
a circuit. Many components such as heating elements and resistors, have a fixed-resistance value.
These values are often printed on the components’ nameplates or manuals for reference.  When a
tolerance is indicated, the measured resistance value should be within the specified resistance
range. Any significant change in a fixed-resistance value usually indicates a problem. 
“Resistance” may sound negative, but in electricity it can be used beneficially.
 In order that the current can be limited in a particular circuit, a component known as a
resistor may be used. Resistors come in a variety of forms from large wired components used in
many electronic circuits today. 
Resistors can be made from a variety of materials like carbon, metal oxide, metal film,
resistance wire and the likes. Resistors can come in different formats-different types of resistor
have slightly different characteristics and this means that they may be used in different circuit
applications.Selecting the right type of resistor can help the circuit operate in the way it is
intended. 

 
 
The Three Methods to Determine the Resistance
In determining the resistance of a resistor, there are three methods. The first method is to
determine the resistance from color code. In this table, this is the basis of reading from the color
code which contains the color of the bands marked on the resistor with the assigned value of
each color of the digits, multiplier and tolerance. In a resistor it consists of four color bands with
different representatives. Starting from Left to right, The first band (closest to left end) and the
second bands respectively represent the digit colors. The third band represents the multiplier and
the last band (sometimes absent) is the tolerance. After knowing how to read by color coding we
can determine the 𝑁𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 and the minimum and maximum of the
𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒: where ( 𝑁𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒)-
Tolerance% ( Nominal Value of Resistance) to ( 𝑁𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒)+ Tolerance%
( Nominal Value of Resistance).
 

The second method is to determine the resistance of a resistor by the use of an ohmmeter
by getting the value of ohmmeter reading by setting it to x100 range in the multi-tester.  The
third method is to determine resistance of a resistor by using measured current and voltage
values in terms of ohm’s law. 
Ohm's law is what allows you to achieve the desired flow of current for your specific
needs, whether you are turning on your room heater or setting your iron to the cotton setting. 

To further discuss the Ohm’s law, a picture is shown below.

 Ohm’s law states that the voltage across a conductor is directly proportional to the current
flowing through it, provided all physical conditions and temperatures remain constant. It explains
the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance. Ohm expressed this discovery in the
form of a simple equation, describing how voltage, current, and resistance interrelate. 
 V∝I
V = IR
I = V/R  or  R = V/I
Here, V = Voltage (volts),
I = Current (ampere)
and R = Resistance (Ohm)
This law can be easily understood with the analogy of observing the flow of water
through a pipe. More water will come out of the pipe when more water pressure is applied.
Similarly, at a given resistance value, when more voltage is applied across a conductor, more
current will flow. Moreover, Ohm’s law also means that if we know the values of any two of
voltage, current, or resistance in a circuit, we can determine the third. 
Deriving Ohm’s Law From Drude Model

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
An image above is shown to understand the concept of Drude model that was discovered
by Paul Drude in1900. The Drude model simplifies the explanation of the movement of electrons
in a solid, such as the metals. Drude used classical mechanics to treat the solid as a fixed array of
nuclei in a “sea” of unbound electrons, and the kinetic theory of gasses to estimate the drift
velocity. In addition, he also used the following formula to calculate the average drift velocity of
electrons and approximate the conductivity of a number of non-valent metals. The formula for
average momentum is charge of the electron (-e) times the average time between the collisions.
Current density turned out to be directly proportional to the electric field, as both current density
and momentum were proportional to the drift velocity. By applying Ohm’s law to Drude’s
Model of electron movement, he was able to build models predicting the electronic transport
properties of metals.