You are on page 1of 5

Internal Resistance of a Battery

Name: Zac Towner

Partner: Nick Wall

Date of Experiment: November 30, 2010

2023-70B
Objective: The objective of this lab was to confirm the validity of the
following equation and determine the EMF and internal resistance of a 6 volt
dry cell battery.
v=-ri+Ԑ

Apparatus:

• Voltmeter
• Ammeter
• Dry cell 6V battery
• 0-1000 Ω rheostat
• Wires
• switch
Theory:
Kirchhoff’s loop rule states that the sum of the potential gains and drops
around a closed loop in a circuit should be equal to zero. In the given circuit
the following equation is true:
Given circuit

ε-Ir-IR=0
After solving for IR the equation becomes:
IR=ε-Ir
After rearranging this equation you get the following equation:
v=-ri+Ԑ
A plot of V vs. i should yield a strong linear equation with the equation of the
line being in the following format:
v=-ri+Ԑ
This means that the inverse slope of the line is the internal resistance of the
battery and the y intercept is the EMF of the battery.

Procedure 1:
Table A- Data for 8 different trials conducted during lab.
I I (A) V
(mA) (V)

5.5 0.00 5.7


55 8

7.1 0.00 5.7


71 5
8.6 0.00 5.7
86 2

11.2 0.01 5.6


12 7

14 0.01 5.6
4 2

18.9 0.01 5.5


89 2

25.2 0.02 5.4


52

80.6 0.08 4.2


06 3

Procedure 2-3:

Figure 1- Shows the linear best fit for the V vs. i.

Table B- +/- errors in the slope and y-intercept of the best fit line for the V
vs. i.
Y-
Slope intercept
-20.7 Ω 5.90 V

0.16 Ω 0.005 V

A. The V vs. i graph shows a strong linear relationship which is to be


expected.
B. V=-20.7i+5.90
C. Based on the data the following values were determined for EMF (ε)
and internal resistance (r).
ε=5.90 ± 0.005 V
r=20.7 ± 0.16 Ω

Conclusion/Discussion:
During this lab the validity of the following equation was confirmed.
v=-ri+Ԑ
This equation was confirmed by the strong linear relationship that the plot of
V vs. i showed. Values for the EMF and internal resistance of a 6 volt dry cell
battery were also determined using this equation. The value for EMF was
determined to be ε=5.90 ± 0.005 V, this is an acceptable value for a 6 V dry
cell battery. The value for the internal resistance of the battery (r) was
determined to be r=20.7 ± 0.16 Ω, this value is also acceptable for a 6V dry
cell battery. This lab was conducted almost completely error free, one
possible error source of error could be the ammeter and voltmeter, if either
was not calibrated properly the readings could be in correct. Another way to
improve on the findings of this lab would be to increase the level of precision
of the current (I) readings, we were only able to accurately read to the tenths
place on the Ammeter.

You might also like