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Elementary Circuits, Magnetism, and Electrostatics

Author: Samir Mohandes Lab Partner: Jayme Gosney Instructor: Matt Leone PHYS 241-001A Date work performed: January 18 and January 25, 2011 Date work submitted: February 1, 2011

2 I. Concepts & Equations Parallel and series connections: When components are connected in series, charge must flow from one component to the next in the order in which they are connected. Conversely, when components are connected in parallel, moving charges can only take one of multiple pathways, and the total current is divided equally between the various paths. Battery voltage & batteries in series: Batteries elevate charge from low electric potentials to higher electric potentials. When charge is run through a battery in the reverse direction, its electric potential is lowered. For example, if a two 9V batteries are placed head to tail, the first battery will elevate the electric potential of charge that passes through it by 9V, and the second battery will elevate the electric potential of the same charge by an additional 9V, for a net gain of +18V. Were the batteries placed head to head or tail to tail, the first battery would increase the electric potential of charge by 9V and the next battery would decrease the charge equivalently by 9V, for a net gain of 0V. Resistors and equivalent resistance: Resistors impede the flow of charge through a circuit. Equivalent resistance for resistors in series is computed by taking the sum of all resistances involved, whereas equivalent resistance for resistors in parallel is taken by equating the inverse of the equivalent resistance to the sum of the inverses of the individual resistance values. Thus two resistors in series will yield a greater equivalent resistance than just a single resistor of the same value, which will yield a greater equivalent resistance than two of these resistors in series. Supplied and dissipated power: Power dissipated by resistors is given by the equation Pdissipated = (Iresistor)(Vresistor), whereas the power supplied by a battery is likewise Psupplied = (Ibattery)(Vbattery). DMM measurements (voltage, current, and resistance): To measure voltage using a digital multimeter (DMM), alligator clips must be connected such that the voltmeter is connected in parallel at the two points on the circuit across which the unknown potential difference is desired. The other end of one alligator clip is then attached to the negative terminal (labeled ground on the DMM), and the other end of the other alligator clip is attached to the positive terminal, and the switch is turned to measure volts. The change in electric potential between the two points will appear on the screen. To measure current, the DMM must actually be inserted into the circuit. This is accomplished by attaching one alligator clip to a ground terminal in the DMM and the other end into the circuit, and wiring another alligator clip to the other side of the circuit and back into the other current terminal of the DMM, and turning the switch to measure Amperes. This will measure the current between the two points on either side of the DMM. Lastly, to measure resistance with the DMM, attach one alligator clip to the ground terminal of the DMM and the other to one object whose resistance value is desired. Then, attach a second alligator clip to the other end of the object in question, and the other end to the terminal of the DMM marked ohms. Then, turn the switch such that the DMM will measure resistance. Magnetism and magnetic fields: Magnetic fields are generated by moving charges. The magnetic poles of a magnetic field generated by a positive current run orthogonally to the direction of the current and is said to be right-handedthat is, if the current moves in the direction of ones right-handed fingers, the resulting North magnetic pole will be in the direction of the thumb. Magnetic field lines run from the

3 North end to the South end, and much like positive and negative electric charges, North and South poles are repulsive in nature and if two similar poles are placed near each other the direction of the magnetic field lines will reflect this. In magnetized objects, atoms are aligned such that maximum attraction is afforded in the presence of a magnetic field. Such is the case in compassesa freely spinning magnetized needle is allowed to align with the Earths magnetic field lines that run from one pole to the other. However, the Earths magnetic field lines run from South to North, meaning that the geographic North pole is actually the magnetic South pole, and vice versa. Electrostatics in conductors and insulators: In conductors, when a charge is transferred to the surface of the conducting object, the charge is distributed uniformly across the surface such that the distance between it and like charges is minimized. The conducting material does not impede the movement of charge. In insulators, however, charge experiences a sticking effectthe charged particles remain in the location where they were transferred. In insulators that contain polar molecules, however, the atoms will align in accordance with the attraction of opposite charges. Because the oppositely charged charges will now be closer to one another, the attractive forces will outweigh the repulsive forces and the insulator, despite being electrically neutral, will experience a net attractive force. Attractive force as a result of charge separation: A pith ball is comprised of a small, lightweight cork ball with a silver conducting surface attached by string to a stand. When a charged object (for example, a positively charged rod) is brought near the pith ball, the negative charges on the conducting surface will move closer to the positively charged rod. Conversely, the positive charges will move to the opposite end of the conducting surface. Because electric force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two charged objects, the attractive forces will outweigh the repulsive forces and the pith ball, despite being electrically neutral, will experience a net attractive force. Similarly, in an electroscope (a device composed of a conducting sphere connected to a piece of gold foil attached to the apparatus at one end), when a charged object is brought towards the conducting sphere, charges of the opposite sign will move through the conducting material closer to the rod, and similar charges will be driven to the bottom of the apparatus, where the will repel each other, causing movement in the gold foil away from the rest of the apparatus. Charging by induction: If a neutral object is grounded, and a charged object is brought near itfor example, a negatively charged onethen the positive charges within the conductor will move towards the charged object, and the negative charges will be pushed away and into the Earth via the ground wire. Then, if the ground wire is disconnected, and the charged object is removed from the vicinity, then a net positive charge will remain in the object. The Faraday ice pail: The Faraday ice pail is a device used to determine whether a charged object has a net negative or net positive charge. It consists of an inner cage, connected by wire to the positive terminal on a voltmeter, and an outer cage, connected by wire to the negative ground terminal on a voltmeter. Because current moves from regions of higher electric potential to lower electric potential (just as water rolling down a hill has moved from a region of higher gravitational potential to lower gravitational potential), and electrons move in the opposite direction as current, electrons should move from regions of lower electric potential to regions of higher electric potential. As a result, if an object with a net positive

4 charge is placed in the inner cage, then electrons are attracted to it and move to the inner wall, where the voltage potential must therefore be higher. Because the inner cage is connected to a positive terminal, the voltmeter reads a positive charge. If a negatively charged object is placed inside the inner cage, the opposite effect will take place and the voltmeter will measure a negative charge. II. In-Class Section: Charging by Induction Procedure: First, a flat plastic insulator was charged by being rubbed against a piece of synthetic fur. This was placed beneath a neutral conductor. An insulated handle on the conductor prevented contact between the conducting material and any hands or fingers. Then, the conductor was removed from the charged insulator and its net charge was measured using the Faraday ice pail. Next, the flat plastic insulator was charged once more, in the same fashion as before; once again, the charged conductor was placed atop the insulator via its insulated handle. A finger was touched to the conducting material and the conductor was removed from the insulator. Finally, the net charge of the conductor was measured using the Faraday ice pail. Results: During the first measurement (no contact between the conducting material and a finger), only a miniscule amount of net negative charge on the conductor was measured by the Faraday ice pail, and no net charge was detected on the conductor by the electroscope. In the second measurement, large amounts of net positive charge were measured by the Faraday ice pail (the voltmeter needle was pushed to the end of the scale). Discussion: The phenomena observed can be explained by the process of charging by induction. When the conductor was touched to the negatively charged insulator at first, there was no charge transfer (because insulating materials do not allow for the transfer or movement of charge carriers); however, the individual charges within the conductor were free to move about the conducting material. The positive charges were drawn closer to the negatively charged insulator and the negative charges were pushed away. However, when the conductor was moved towards the Faraday ice pail and electroscope, the charges returned to an equilibrium state and registered no net charge (the net charge registered by the Faraday ice pail was likely due to charge transfer to other objects being used in the experiment, or may have been a result of electrostatic fields generated by the charged insulator; however, the lack of a response from the electroscope gives us reason to believe that the conductor was electrically neutral regardless). However, once the insulator was recharged and the conductor was set atop it once more, the positive and negative charges realigned in the same way as was described earlier. Then, when a finger was touched to a finger, the negative charges being repelled by the negatively charged insulator were given an additional pathway that would take them even farther from the negatively charged insulator that was repelling themthus, the finger served as a functional common ground. This left nothing but positive

5 charges on the conductor, as was confirmed experimentally by the dramatic response by the electroscope and the large positive value measured by the Faraday ice pail. III. Open-Ended/Creative Design: Equivalent Resistance of Resistors in Parallel The objective of this experiment was to empirically determine the correct formula for equivalent resistance of two resistors placed in parallel (possible formulae listed on page 40 of the PHYS 241 Spring 2011 lab manual). This task was approached via a process-of-elimination empirical analysis of multiple resistor values. To begin, two resistors were connected in parallel. One end of this system was connected to the ground terminal of a DMM and the other was connected to the resistance terminal. The DMM was then switched to the resistance setting. Equivalent resistance was measured and recorded as it appeared on the DMM display and the process was repeating using different resistors of known resistances on a marked resistor board. The results are summarized below: R1 100 100 200 100 R2 100 200 500 500 Rtotal 50 66.67 142.86 83.3

The only one of the listed formulae that was consistent with all of the observed equivalent resistances listed above was formula F:

on the basis that

, and

All other provided formulae were inconsistent with one or more of the observed individual resistances as they translated into the measured equivalent resistances. Thus, we were able to conclude that the reciprocal of the equivalent resistance is equal to the sum of the reciprocal of the individual resistances for resistors connected in series. That is,