COMSATS UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

LAB REPORT EXPERIMENT NO.6

COURSE TITTLE : Applied Physics for Engineers

COURSE CODE : PHY 121

SUBMITTED TO : Sir Dr. Yasir Ali

SUBMITTED BY : Daud bin Nasar

REGISTRATION NUMBER : FA22-BSE-010

SUBMISSION DATE : October 17, 2022

 EXPERIMENT NO. 6

Measurement of resistivity and conductivity of Eureka and Copper wire.

Objectives
 To measure the resistivity and conductivity of Eureka wire.
 To measure the resistivity and conductivity of Copper wire.

Apparatus
 Power Supply.
 Ammeter.
 Voltmeter.
 Eureka Wire.
 Copper Wire.
 Screw Gauge.
 Meter Rod.
 Connecting Wires.

Introduction
Resistivity of a material is defined as the resistance of a unit volume of the material. If ‘R’ is the
resistance , ’A’ is the area of cross section, ‘L’ is the length of a wire and a current ‘I’ is passing through
its area ‘A’, then

R ∝ L/A

R=Constant* L/A

Constant = R* A/L

This constant is called Resistivity of the material ρ. The inverse of resistivity is called Conductivity σ

of the material is given by

ρ=R*A/L Ohms-cm

σ= 1/ ρ Ohms-1 -cm-1

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 Part1: Resistivity and conductivity of Eureka

Procedure

 I made connections according to the following the diagram to find the resistance of
eureka wire.

Figure 1

 I switched on the Power Supply and gave a small current in the wire , recorded this
current and corresponding voltage across the wire from the meters on the power
supply.
 I kept on changing the current with regular intervals and recorded corresponding
voltages and currents in the table 1.
 I found the value of Resistance of Eureka wire for each set of voltage and current and
found the average Resistance ‘R’.
 I found the diameter ‘D’ of the wire using screw gauge and length of the wire using a
meter rod in centimeters .
 I calculated Area of wire and radius using A=πr2 and r=D/2 respectively
 I measured length L of the wire.
 I calculated Resistivity and conductivity as per given procedure.

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Observations and Calculations

Current (Amperes) Voltage V (Volts) Resistance R (R=V/I) Ohms

0.09 0.3 0.30
0.15 0.6 0.25
0.26 1.0 0.26
0.36 1.4 0.25
0.42 1.7 0.25
0.48 1.9 0.25
0.66 2.6 0.25

Average Resistance of wire = R = 0.30+0.25+0.26+0.25+0.25+0.25+0.25 = 0.258 Ohms

7
Length of Wire = L = 25 cm

Diameter of Wire = D = 0.29mm = 0.029cm

Radius of wire =r =D/2= 0.029cm/2 = 0.0145

Area of Cross Section = A= πr2 = 6.60 X 10-4 cm2

Resistivity of the wire = ρ= R*A/L = 6.8 X 10-6 Ohms-cm

Conductivity of the wire = σ= 1/ ρ = 1.47 X 105 Ohms-1-cm-1

Part2: Resistivity and conductivity of Copper wire

Procedure
 I made connections according to the diagram in fig 1
 I switched on the Power Supply and gave a small current in the wire , recorded this
current and corresponding voltage across the wire from the meters on the power
supply.
 I kept on changing the current with regular intervals and recorded corresponding
voltages and currents in the table 1.
 I found the value of Resistance of Copper wire for each set of voltage and current and
found the average Resistance ‘R’.
 I found the diameter ‘D’ of the wire using screw gauge and length of the wire using a
meter rod in centimeters .
 I calculated Area of wire and radius using A=πr2 and r=D/2 respectively
 I measured length L of the wire.
 I calculated Resistivity and conductivity as per given procedure.

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Observations and Calculations

Current (Amperes) Voltage V (Volts) Resistance R (R=V/I) Ohms

0.14 5.2 X 10-3 0.037
0.21 7.3 X 10-3 0.034
0.33 11.6 X 10-3 0.035
0.42 14.4 X 10-3 0.034
0.55 18.6 X 10-3 0.033
0.61 21.6 X 10-3 0.035
0.76 27.0 X 10-3 0.035

Average Resistance of wire = R = 0.037+0.034+0.035+0.034+0.033+0.035+0.035 = 0.0347 Ohms

7

Length of Wire = L = 18cm

Diameter of Wire = D = 0.34mm = 0.034cm

Radius of wire =r =D/2= 0.017cm

Area of Cross Section = A= πr2 = 9.07 X 10-4 cm2

Resistivity of the wire = ρ= R*A/L = 1.748 X 10-6 Ohms-cm

Conductivity of the wire = σ= 1/ ρ = 5.7 X 105 Ohms-1-cm-1

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