Republic of the Philippines

Biliran Province State University

(formerly NAVAL STATE UNIVERSITY)
ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED

School of Teacher Education

Physics 122

Factors Affecting Resistance

(Electrodynamics: 4th Topic)

Submitted to:

Dr. Jason V. Ang___

Physics 122 Instructor

Submitted by:

Arianne Christelle N. Endrina

BSEd Science – 1D Student
 Republic of the Philippines
Biliran Province State University
(formerly NAVAL STATE UNIVERSITY)
ISO 9001:2015 CERTIFIED

School of Teacher Education

Professional Education:
The Teaching Profession

Submitted to:

_________ Dr. Susan Bentor ___________

Prof. Ed.: The Teaching Profession Instructor

Submitted by:

Arianne Christelle N. Endrina

BSEd Science – 1D Student
Factors Affecting Resistance

There are four factors that affect resistance.

These are the following:
1. The length of the material.
2. The cross-sectional area of the material.
3. The temperature of the material.
4. The kind of material.
Before understanding as to how each factor affects resistance, let us first understand

what resistance is.

In electricity, resistance is a force that counter-acts the flow of an electrical current.

Thus, it serves as an indicator as to how difficult it is for an electrical current to flow, as it is

able to influence such. Moreover, resistance is measured in ohms, which is symbolized by

the Greek letter omega (Ω).

Resistance may also be defined as a measure of how difficult it is to push a current

through an electric circuit (Engineer4Free, 2020). The easier it is to push a current through

an electric circuit, the less the resistance, because there is not much “resisting” the flow. The

harder it is for a current to push through an electric circuit, the higher the resistance,

because the flow is being impeded or “resisted.” Furthermore, resistance is dependent on

the length, cross-sectional area, temperature and kind of the material involved, which are

discussed in the succeeding sections.

1. How does length affect resistance?

Length affects resistance, because it is a determinant of the duration of the collisions

that will take place in the circuit. That is, the longer the length of the wire, the greater the

resistance will be, because there will be more collisions within. The charge carriers

(electrons) have to collide with the metal ions in a given material. These collisions then affect

the energy of the electrons. The more collisions there are, the more energy the electrons
lose, causing them to slow down in the process. Thus, the current flow is deterred or more

so “resisted,” so to speak.

To sum it up, the longer the length of the wire, the greater the resistance will be,

because the electrons passing through it will have to undergo more collisions, thereby

draining the energy, causing the electrical current to slow down or stop entirely.

Inversely, if the wire is shorter, the electrons that will pass through wouldn’t have to

come across as much collisions. Therefore, the energy or the propelling force pushing the

electrons isn’t all that much disturbed due to the significantly shorter path of the wire in terms

of length.

To get a clearer picture, we can use the analogy of people at the mall (pre-pandemic)

and you. You are in a hurry and want to get to a store to purchase something you need.

Upon entering, you see that there is a large and tightly-packed crowd gathered to watch a

performance on a stage. To get to the store you intend to go, you have to pass through the

very large crowd that is quite lengthy from end-to-end (span) due to the sheer number of

people. Thus, you consume a lot more time to get to the store because you have to

“shimmy” (collide) your way into the large crowd.

STORE

30
meters

ENTRANCE
 In reverse, if the crowd wasn’t as lengthy when the people are crammed from end-to-

end (span), you wouldn’t take as much time to reach the store, because you wouldn’t have

to “collide” with a lot more people.

STORE

10
meters

ENTRANCE

You are the current. The jam-packed people represent the metal ions in the wire. The

longer the span of the crowd, the harder it is for you to get to your destination. That is, the

crowd is “resisting” your intention to go to the store by impeding your movement through

collisions.

It is important to note that the cause for the current to slow down through collisions is

because of the metal ions. Please bear in mind that conductors, which are typically metallic

materials, are composed of a lattice of positive metal ions in a sea of delocalized electrons.

This means that electrons can roam around anywhere in a metal, but the protons remain

stationary, because they are the defining feature of an atom which constitutes the nature of

a material. Therefore, the protons are held in place.

Still, electrons still collide with matter apart from metal ions. They could bump into

other impurities and other atoms.

When moving electrons pass through these stationary positive metal ions, collisions

will occur. How often depends on the length of the metallic material involved, such as a wire.
 2. How does the cross-sectional area of the material affect resistance?

Firstly, what is meant by cross-sectional?

The cross-sectional area is the 2-dimensional area (shape) that is obtained from

slicing a 3-dimensional object perpendicular to a specified axis.

For instance, a cylinder is a 3-dimensional object. When it is sliced horizontally at the

center, the shape obtained is a circle, which is 2-dimensional.

Cylinder

Cross-section

Therefore, the cross-sectional shape of the cylinder shown above is a circle.

A wire is a cylindrical object. When you cut it in half, its cross-sectional shape is a

circle. The area or span of the circle or the cross-sectional area heavily influences the

resistance.

We know that an electrical current passes along the metal conductor inside the wire.

That is, the energy carriers (electrons) move from one point in the wire to another by flowing

along the wire.

The greater the cross-sectional area, the more electrons can fit inside, allowing more

electrons to pass through. As more electrons are flowing, resistivity is then lowered.
 Oppositely, the smaller the cross-sectional area, the less electrons can cram into it,

thereby reducing the number of electrons to flow. This lowered flowing of the electrons

equates to higher resistance.

This can be likened to the streets in the metropolis, such as Manila, and our very own

town road, Vicentillo Street.

The widest street in the Philippines is called Commonwealth Avenue, which has

eighteen (18) lanes. It has nine (9) lanes for outgoing vehicles, and another nine (9) lanes for

incoming vehicles; nine (9) lanes per direction.

In contrast to the nine (9) lanes per direction, Vicentillo Street only has two (2) lanes.

Commonwealth Avenue Vicentillo Street

Image by Biliran.ph via Facebook

We can then deduce that Commonwealth Avenue is able to let more vehicles pass

through at a lesser span of time. Meanwhile, Vincetillo Street can only cater to several

vehicles to pass through, as it is more constrictive or congestive in comparison to the former

(Commonwealth Avenue). Being congestive then would be analogous to being resistive.

The vehicles are the electrons. The street would be the cross-sectional area. The

wider the street, the more vehicles can pass through at a lesser span of time. Conversely,
the narrower the road, the less vehicles can pass through, increasing the time to be

consumed.

Thus, the greater the cross-sectional

area of a wire, the less the resistance will be,

because more charge carriers (electrons) are

permitted to pass through simultaneously.

Inversely, the smaller the cross-sectional area

of a wire, the higher the resistance will be, as

the charge carriers (electrons) are being

constricted in terms of simultaneous passage,

thereby reducing the number of electrons to pass through.

3. How does temperature affect resistance?

Temperature greatly affects resistance. This has something to do with the activity or

energy in the subatomic level.

We know that an increase in heat is basically an increase in kinetic energy. The

hotter a substance is, the more energized or “excited” the subatomic particles are comprising

it. The lower the temperature, the less kinetic energy there is, which means that the atoms

are a bit more relaxed. Not entirely, completely or perfectly relaxed though, because this

goes against the Kinetic Molecular Theory of Matter, which states that matter is made up of

particles that are constantly moving. In cooler temperatures, the particles are just a bit

relaxed. A little bit more “chill,” so to speak.

With that being said, the more excited the particles are in a wire (atoms, metal ions,

other impurities, and the passing electrons themselves), the more difficult it is to pass from

one point to another, which results to an increase in resistance. Simply put, the higher the

temperature, the greater the resistance, because the flowing charge carriers have to move

along a wire with very excited particles.

 The electric current would then encounter a lot more impediments as metal ions,

atoms, other impurities, and the electrons in the electric current itself, would become “erratic”

or extremely excited. According to the National MagLab (2019), heating the metal conductor

causes the atoms to vibrate more, which in turn makes it more difficult for the electrons to

flow, increasing resistance.

In reverse, the lower the temperature of the conductor, the easier it is for the electric

current to pass through, because the atoms that they “meet” along the wire aren’t vibrating

as much.

This factor, temperature, can be further explained in an interactive simulation using

this link from the National MagLab:

https://nationalmaglab.org/education/magnet-academy/watch-play/interactive/heat-

resistance#:~:text=Heating%20the%20metal%20conductor%20causes,electrons%20to

%20flow%2C%20increasing%20resistance.

As an analogy to elaborate this factor, we can opt to a difference in passage in a very

busy school hallway versus a sparse school hallway.

Busy School Hallway Sparse School Hallway

 In a busy school hallway, students come from every direction, rushing to get to

another class, fumbling through lockers, and poking fun at each other, which ensues your

daily dose of school chaos. If you intend to go somewhere in this particular school, facing

this scenario basically equates to getting to your destination late, because the students are

all erratic, excited, or are moving very fast and may change directions abruptly and

suddenly. This is what happens to the atoms in a heated conductor. The atoms are the

students. You are the electric current. When atoms vibrate more, it is a lot harder for the

charge carriers to pass through the conductor.

Meanwhile, your movement in a sparse school corridor would be less interrupted, as

there aren’t many students that may impede your movement through collisions.

4. How does the kind of material affect resistance?

There are two words that are often familiar to most people: conductors and

insulators. What differentiates the two?

At the simplest level, most people know that conductors are capable of conducting

an electric current. That is, it is the material that allows the flow of the electric current. This is

the metallic component found in electrical wires and are often golden in color or has a brassy

tinge.

Meanwhile, an insulator would be the material that hampers the flow of an electric

current. Insulators do not conduct electricity. Most people would know that insulators are

responsible that daily household items don’t electrocute homeowners.

But why? Why are some materials able to conduct electricity while others can’t?

Notice how conductors are comprised of metals.

At a closer look at the atomic structure of metals, it is composed of a lattice of

positive metal ions in a sea of delocalized electrons. This means that the ions in a metal are

arranged in a regular repeating pattern. Meanwhile, the free-floating electrons (delocalized in

the sense that they don’t cling to only one parent atom) serve as the glue that hold the metal

ions together, and hold the structure in place.

The nature of metals to have free-floating electrons ultimately makes it a good

conductor of electricity, because it allows charge carriers in the form electrons to flow

through them.

The opposite of a conductor is an insulator. An insulator is a material that doesn’t let

electrons move well, which means it doesn’t conduct electricity.

However, in relation to the first part, conductors also have varying electrical

conductivity. When a material has high electrical conductivity, disregarding other variables

(length, cross-sectional area and temperature), its electrical resistivity will be low. In reverse,

when a material has low electrical conductivity, it has a high electrical resistivity.

Good conductors have less resistivity, such as Copper and Aluminum, because they

allow electrical current to flow through them with very little resistance. Insulators have high

resistivity, as in the case of rubber and glass, because they do not allow electrical current to

flow through them, thereby resisting the flow of electrons.

In between the two are semiconductors, which allow partial movements of electrons.

For instance, the resistivity of Silicon comes in between glass and gold.
 Resistivity:

Gold < Silicon < Glass

Conductivity:

Gold > Silicon > Glass

Moreover, resistivity for perfect conductors is zero (0). The resistivity for perfect

insulators is infinite.

Why are some conductors better than others?

According to Mike (2007), most ordinary metals have about the same density of

electrons (number per volume), so the main reason for the differences in how well they

conduct electricity is the difference in how easily the electrons move around. In some metals,

such as copper, gold, silver and aluminum, the electrons can travel past hundreds of atoms

before bumping into something that makes them change directions. In others, especially

alloys with more than one type of metal atom, the electrons travel only past a few atoms

before bouncing off of some irregularity in the material.

With that being said, the kind of material does affect resistance. Alloys, such as

bronze, have less electrical conductivity, and therefore higher resistivity in terms of material

type, because it is considered to be an impure substance, being a mixture of tin and copper,

which ultimately brings about irregularities or impurities that impede flowing electrons.

Alloys, being impure substances, are more likely to have higher electrical resistance,

as compared to pure metals.

Apart from the purity of the substance, there is also another reason why some

conductors are better than others.

 Silver (Ag) ranks the first for being the most conductive material known. This is

followed by Copper (Cu), Gold (Au), Aluminum (Al), Zinc (Zn), and so on.

All of the first five (5) most conductive materials are pure substances, but some are

better at conducting electricity still.

This is tied to the “freedom” of the valence electrons in a particular substance, as well

as its crystal structure, which will be explained by “The Band Theory of Solids.”

In solid-state physics, the band structure of a solid describes those ranges of energy,

called energy bands, that an electron within the solid may have, and the ranges of energy

called band gaps which it may not have.

When two atomic orbitals combine, two molecular orbitals will be generated. One of

the orbitals will be the lower-energy bonding orbital, while the other will be the higher-energy

anti-bonding orbital. Hence, as more bonds form, more molecular orbitals will be generated

to contain all of the electrons.

As more atoms come together, generating more molecular orbitals, a network solid

will be formed. In easier terms, as more atoms come together, they will connect and form a

seemingly crystalline structure by billions (or infinite, for practical purposes) of units, which

brings about an entire substance, such as a piece of silver.

As the number of atoms increases, the number of orbitals will increase in the same

way. As the
number of orbitals becomes incredibly large, they will begin to resemble one continuous

band. This model is known as Band Theory.

In this theory, the atoms are held together by electrons in the lower-energy bonding

orbitals, as these are filled faster, while the higher-energy anti-bonding orbitals remain

vacant.

The lower-energy bonding orbitals is also referred to as Highest-Occupied

Molecular Orbital (HOMO), because, as they are filled faster, it is occupied the most.

Moreover, this band is also called the Valence Band in which we can find the valence

electrons.

The other one, which is the higher-energy anti-bonding orbitals, is also known as

Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO), because it takes a higher energy for

electrons to occupy this orbital. This band is also referred as the Conduction Band.

In between in this band is something that we call a Band Gap. The band gap is the

distance between the valence band of electrons and the conduction band (Hanania et al,

2015).
 The Band Gap is crucial for determining whether a material is a conductor or an

insulator, or something entirely in between – a semiconductor.

In conductors, the band gap is negligible,

which makes it easy for the electrons in the valence

band to move to the conduction band. This freer

movement explains why some conductors are better

than others.

Oppositely, the band gap is very significant

in insulators that electrons require huge amounts

of energy to reach the conduction band. This

makes it difficult for electrons in the valence band

to move to the conduction band.

 In between the two extremes lie semiconductors.

In semiconductors, the band gap isn’t as miniscule as

conductors, but it isn’t as great as insulators. The band

gap in semiconductors is on the intermediate side,

which means that the electrons from the valence band

can move to the conduction band through the aid of

thermal energy. That is, the heat shall increase the

kinetic energy of the electrons in the valence band,

giving them enough energy or “strength,” so to speak, to

jump over into the conduction band.

Therefore, band gaps influence the ability of a substance to resist an electrical

current.

The bigger the band gap, the more difficult it is for an electrical current to traverse,

which denotes that the material in question is an insulator.

Conversely, if the band gap is very small or considered as negligible, wherein an

electrical current can flow along the material with little resistance, the material is a

conductor.

Furthermore, if the band gap is intermediate, in which electrons can still move around

with the aid of thermal energy, the substance is then considered to be as a semiconductor.

There is a multitude of substances that act as any of the three. Below are some

examples of materials that serve as conductors, insulators, or semiconductors.

Conductors Insulators Semiconductors

1. Silver 1. Rubber 1. Germanium

2. Gold 2. Glass 2. Silicon
3. Copper 3. Pure water 3. Gallium Arsenide
4. Aluminum 4. Oil 4. Silicon Carbide
5. Mercury 5. Air 5. Gallium Nitride
6. Steel 6. Diamond 6. Cadmium Sulfide
7. Iron 7. Dry wood
 8. Seawater 8. Dry cotton 7. Lead Sulfide
9. Concrete 9. Plastic
10. Mercury 10. Asphalt

In summary, there are four (4) main factors that affect resistance.

These are the following:

1. The length of the material.
2. The cross-sectional area of the material.
3. The temperature of the material.
4. The kind of the material.

Such “common” terms that ordinary people come across every day. Nonetheless,

despite being ordinary features, they contribute to an extraordinary cause: enabling the

world to advance and attain progress – one spark at a time.

References:

Ang, J.V. (2021). Course Module in PHYS 122 (Electricity & Magnetism). Naval, Biliran:

Biliran Province State University.

GCSE Physics Ninja. (2016, November 16). Resistance of a Wire vs. Diameter and Length –

Electricity Physics GCSE. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=EDqS5CHrqTQ

Engineer4Free. (2020, November 12). What is Resistance? [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leEYUEd0BLc

Stenhouse, K. & Donev J. (2021). Cross-sectional area. Retrieved from

https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Cross-sectional_area

National Maglab. (2019). Heat Resistance. Retrieved from

https://nationalmaglab.org/education/magnet-academy/watch-play/interactive/heat-

resistance#:~:text=Heating%20the%20metal%20conductor%20causes,electrons%20to

%20flow%2C%20increasing%20resistance.

Iowa State University. (n.d.) Physics of Nondestructive Evaluation: Electricity. Retrieved from

https://www.nde-ed.org/Physics/Electricity/index.xhtml

Mike, W. (2007). Q & A: metallic heat conduction. Retrieved from

https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1818&t=metallic-heat-conduction

Helmenstine, A. (2019). What Is The Most Conductive Element? Retrieved from

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-most-conductive-element-606683

Helmenstine, A. (2019). 10 Examples of Electrical Conductors and Insulators. Retrieved

from https://www.thoughtco.com/examples-of-electrical-conductors-and-insulators-608315
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Retrieved from https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/basic_concepts/conductors-

semiconductors-insulators/semiconductor-materials-types-groups.php

Toppr. (n.d.). Resistivity of Various Materials. Retrieved from

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Lumen. (n.d.). Band Theory of Electrical Conductivity. Retrieved from

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Hanania, J. et al. (2015). Band gap. Retrieved from

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3YBUd58D-4bhZo98LFqHjYVMHF-HvbGqohYdnSfgWgIofyIBPOmPgTnXY2Zrr0KDzBVG_H0-

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