XLIX

Engineering Design Firm

9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223

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1201 11
Meg Harkins
Shelby Benton
Allison Bates
Electrical Laboratory Report

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TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE:

XLIX Engineering Firm

Allison Bates
October 1, 2015
Electrical Laboratory Report

The purpose of this lab was to evaluate students understanding of the basics of electrical circuits.
It did this by having multiple aspects which included designing, constructing and testing a bread
board circuit.
Part of the design process was to use the information given in class regarding electrical circuits,
prior knowledge, and research in order to correctly calculate the amount of resistors needed to
obtain the correct voltage drop at each given node. With this information a design package could
be created which included all the calculations that were previously found and a schematic that
illustrates the electrical circuit.
Once the designing component was completed, the circuit could be created using the materials
provided to me: bread board circuit, twenty-five resistors and five nodes. The completed circuit
was then brought to class and tested by running an eighteen voltage battery source though the
circuit, and then testing the voltage drops at each node. The voltage drops were then compared to
the actual values that were provide and tested to be sure they were within a positive or negative
five percent of those provided values. The values that were found on the test day were within the
allowed percentage difference verifying that my electrical circuit was designed and built
successfully.
Sincerely,

Allison Bates
1201 Intern

Electrical Project Lab Report

Prepared for:
XLIX Engineering Design Firm
9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223
ENGR 102-011

Prepared by:
Allison Bates
1201 Intern

Date submitted:
10/01/2015

I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any violation
of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.

October 1, 2015

Summary

The purpose of this project was to test the understanding of electrical circuits and demonstrate
that a circuit can be proficiently design and built given certain restrictions.
These restrictions include being given an electrical circuit with a starting voltage of eighteen
volts, five nodes and varying resistance drops and a current. Also provided was a simple bread
board circuit, twenty-five resistors and five jumper wires to act as the nodes were also supplied.
The purpose of this given information was to calculate the resistance of the twenty-five resistors,
the voltage drops at each nodes. Then decipher what resistor would be used at each node, in both
series and parallel, in order to get a value that was close to the actual resistance values.
Furthermore, alternative combinations of the twenty-five resistors had to be found for each node.
The electrical circuit was completed on time and correctly, resulting in receiving a hundred for
this aspect of the electrical circuit project. See Appendix A for actual values and theoretical
values. This showed that the concepts of electrical circuits and create a functional bread board
circuit were grasped.

Introduction

Problem Statement
FortheElectricalCircuitProject,thematerialsthatwereprovidedwereabreadboard,various
resistors,andjumperwire.Withthesewearetodesignandtestanelectricalcircuit.The
electricalcircuitinusehadadirectcurrentsourceofeighteenvolts,acurrentthatwasequalto
0.0012Amps,andfivenodes.Ateachnodeacertainamountofvoltagewasgiven:atthefirst
nodethevoltagewas14.04volts,atthesecondthevoltagewas10.884volts,atthethirdthe
voltagewas7.98volts,atthefourthnodethevoltagewas5.868volts,andatthelastnodehadno
voltage.Withthisgiveninformationthechangeinvoltageateachnodewascalculatedandwith
thatthetotalresistanceforthatnodewascomputed.Thenthetwentyfiveresistorswereusedin
differentcombinations,thishadtohaveatleastoneinparallelinordertofindaresistancethat
waswithin5%or5%ofthetotalresistanceofeachsection.
The purpose of this project is to:
1. Design, build and test an electrical circuit
2. Show mastery of the mathematics required to create a functioning electrical circuit

Design Requirements
This individual project is designed to determine a variety of measurements for the resistors of a
specific electrical circuit. Given the starting voltage, current and voltage at each node the total
resistance of each node was obtained. Then this was used to create a bread board circuit with
various resistors in both series and parallel.

Constraints and Assumptions

For the circuit board it was required to use a variety of the twenty-five resistors in series and at
least one in parallel. Additionally, the measurements of the combinations of the resistors had to
be within a positive or negative five percent of the actual measurement of resistance.

Background

Electrical circuits are formed by numerous factors, the three that were required for this project
were an initial voltage (V), a current (I), and multiple resistors (R). The relationship among these
three factors can best be expressed through Ohms Law. Ohms Law provides the definition for
the relationship between voltage, current and resistance (1201 Faculty).
V =IR
Resistance is the physical property of an element or device that impedes the flow of current; it
is represented by the symbol RThe unit of resistance R was named the ohm in honor of Ohm
and is usually abbreviated by the (capital Omega) symbol (Richard C. Dorf 2010)There are
two different combinations of resistors, one being resistors in series and the other resistors in
parallel.
When resistors are in series with one another it means that joined end to end resulting in the
same current running through them.
n

Rtotal= R
i=1

While when resistors are connected in parallel they are side by side resulting in the current being
split among the resistors (1201 Faculty).
1
R total

=
i=1

1
R

The difference between the actual value and the theoretical value is called the percent difference.
This is found by subtracting the theoretical value from the actual value then dividing that by the
theoretical value and multiplying but 100.
difference=

)
( ( actualtheoretical
)(100)
theoretical

Theory
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Theories that were required for this project were, Ohms law and Kirchoffs Law. Both of these
revolve around each other. Ohms law shows the relationship among voltage, current, and
resistors, while Kirchoffs Law states that amount of current going through a circuit can not be
gained or lost at any point.

Methods and Procedures

The materials used in the construction of the electrical circuit were a basic bread board, five sets
of a variety of resistors, and five jumper wires. In addition to theses materials a schematic of an
electrical circuit was provided with a starting voltage of eighteen volts, a current equal to 0.0012
Amps and fives nodes with a voltage given at each.
The first step in this project was to determine the voltage drop at each individual node. To do this
the voltage provided at at each node was subtracting from the the starting voltage or the voltage
at the previous node. Using these calculations, the total resistance could be found by dividing the
change in voltage by the provided current.
The second step on this project was to determine which of the twenty-five resistors, in series or
parallel, could be combined to be closest to the total resistance of each node. This information
was used to create the schematic (figure 1) and the bread board circuit. In addition to the
calculation used to compose the functional circuit, a second set of calculations was required to
show that there are multiple was to create the same resistance.

Figure 1: Schematic for Electrical Circuit

Sample Calculations

Sample Calculations for Calculation of Change in Voltage:

V =18V 14.04 V

V =3.96V

Sample Calculations for Calculations of Total Resistance:

V =IR

3.96 V =( 0.0012 A ) R

3.96 V
=R
0.0012 A

R=3300 Ohm

Sample Calculations for Calculations of Resistor in Parallel:

R=

1
1
+
10000Ohm 2200Ohm

R=1803.27 Ohm

Sample Calculations for Calculations of Resistor in Series:

R=2200 Ohm+220 Ohm

R=2420 Ohm

Observations and Results

Table 1: Values given

Starting Voltage
Voltage at Node 1
Voltage at Node 2
Voltage at Node 3
Voltage at Node 4
Voltage at Node 5
Current (Amps)

18 V
14.04 V
10.884 V
7.98 V
5.868 V
0V
0.0012 A

Table 2: Calculations found from given values

Node Number

Voltage Drop (
V

Total Resistance
(actual)

Total Resistance
(Theoretical)

Percentage
Difference

1
2
3
4
5

3.96 V
3.156 V
2.904 V
2.112 V
5.868 V

3300 Ohms
2630 Ohms
2420 Ohms
1760 Ohms
4890 Ohms

3300 Ohm
2662 Ohms
2420 Ohms
1803.27 Ohms
5103.27 Ohms

0%
-1.2%
0%
-2.4%
-4.2%

Conclusions and Recommendations

The electrical circuit projected required that a functioning and mathematically correct circuit
would be constructed using only the materials provided by the XLIX Engineering Firm. Once the
calculations were completed, the circuit was constructed and later brought to class to be tested.
The purpose of testing the circuits was to determine if each electrical circuit was within the
requirements provided at the begging of the project. This project demonstrated that there are
multiple was of solving certain problems even when given restriction and this could lead to
measurements that were even closer to the actual measurements.
One specific recommendation to improve the electrical circuit project would be to give more sets
of resistors with a variety of values. This would increase the number of calculation options and
could lead to the theoretical values being closer to the actual given values.

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References
Richard C. Dorf, James A. Svoboda. Introduction to Electrical Circuit. 8th Edition. Danvers,
MA: Donald Fowley, 2010.
1201 Faculty, "Electrical Circuit,"(Pre-class readings, ENGR 1201 Moodle Site, UNC Charlotte,
Charlotte, NC, accessed September 30,2015).

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Appendix A: Test Data Sheet

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