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PHS1001 report: Circuits

(Experimental Skills)
Q1. A circuit consists of a battery and two resistor connected in parallel. Shown below are circuit diagrams and a
schematic representation of the setup.

Power supply

R1 R2

Briefly describe how an ammeter and voltmeter should be connected to measure current through and potential
difference across resistor 1 in the circuit. To do this draw both a circuit diagram (remember the ammeter can be
denoted by A and the voltmeter by V ) and draw a diagram showing how the wires (like the ones you used
would look.

To help with this here’s some sample wires (you can copy paste them, and also stretch them as you like/need, or you
may simply draw by hand):

DRAW YOUR ANSWERS HERE (We suggest you layout your elements like this):

Power supply R1
Voltmeter R2

Ammeter

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EXPERT ANSWER

Power supply R1
Voltmeter R2

Ammeter

(Technical Analysis)
Q2. Show Excel plots of the relationship between current and voltage for the resistor and the light (Be sure your plots
include trend lines, error bars, axes labels and other key features). Comment on how error bars were determined.
Comment also on which are ohmic and non-ohmic and lastly indicate what resistance your plots (and fits) suggest for
any ohmic objects (here again be sure to discuss how to determine uncertainties in these resistances).

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EXPERT ANSWER

Voltage as a Function of Current for 10 kW Resistor


35

y = 9999.8x + 0.0032
30

25
Voltage (V)

20

15

10

0
0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002 0.0025 0.003 0.0035
Current (A)
U(V)=0.0015 V, U(I)=0.0015 mA

Voltage as a Function of Current for Light


35

y = 200.87x1.6588
30

25
Voltage (V)

20

15

10

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Current (A)
U(V)=0.0015 V, U(I)=0.0015 A
In both of the above figures, the error bars (not really visible) represent 3 times the reading uncertainty (ie
3*half the last decimal place of the reading), we have chosen to scale up the reading uncertainty by this
factor of 3 since the readings tended to fluctuate a bit while taking them (this fluctuation diminished if we
waited to take measurements but we did not wait till they vanished completely). Alternatively, you could use
reading errors if your readings were stable, also alternatively one could assume a 1-5% uncertainty in the
equipment).

Looking at the plots, we find that the light is non-ohmic since the plot is non-linear. While the Resistor given
to us, does seem to be ohmic.

Therefore we perform a linear fit to to V=m I+c for the resistor. Based on the fit parameters and their
uncertainties as determined by LINEST, we find c=0.003±0.004V (consistent with zero and supporting the
claim that V∝I, ie that the resistor is ohmic). Lastly, we find that m=10000±5𝛀 consistent with the stated
resistance, 10.0±0.1k𝛀.

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(Note: to further support the conclusion that the light is non-ohmic, we can perform LINEST analysis of the
data for the light, and find that in deed the intercept (-6.6±0.7V is not consistent with zero, which in turn is
inconsistent with V∝I, meaning the light is not ohmic)

(Synthesizing Knowledge and Critical Thinking)


Q3.

Lightning happens when so much charge builds up in the clouds that the potential difference between the clouds and
ground is high enough to reach the “breakdown voltage” of air, that is the voltage where air which is normally a
resistor becomes a conductor (momentarily) and then we get an arc of lightning which discharges the cloud.
What does the plot of current as a function of voltage look like for lightning?

EXPERT ANSWER
Schematically this description of lightning would mean zero current for all voltages below the breakdown
voltage, then a sudden jump to a large current as the lightning strikes and allows all the charge from the
cloud to flow to the ground in a short time. What happens to the right of the breakdown voltage is not clear,
in the lightning scenario, the voltage never builds past this value, since, once the lightning strikes it has set
the voltage back to zero (it has discharged the cloud). If on the other hand we consider that somehow the
voltage was maintained (and continued to grow) current should still flow, though it is not clear if here the air
becomes ohmic or not, thus the picture might be any of the following
Current

Current

Vbreakdown Voltage Vbreakdown Voltage


Current

Vbreakdown Voltage

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