Ohms Law: Electricity Basics

Angulo, A.P., Benco, C.A., Rastrullo, R.

National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
alyannaangulo@gmail.com
Abstract
This experiment aims to show the relationship between voltage, current, and
resistance using the Ohms law for ohmic materials. It also aims to use the different
characteristics of a conductor such as resistivity, length, and area to define its
resistance. For the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance, one
parameter was maintained at a constant to determine the relationship between the
other two. Length was also varied with a constant parameter. The unknown
parameters were then calculated using Ohms Law, or the equations related to
resistance and the data was graphed. The proportionality expected was followed
however there was a large deviation from the expected values due to fluctuations in
mulimeter reading and the heating up of the wire after constant exposure to
current.
Keywords: voltage, current, resistance, ohms law, resistivity
I.
Introduction
Voltage, current, the resistance of a wire and its properties are the
basic concepts of electricity. The mechanics of such revolve around the
movement of charges along an electric field: along the field (if positive) or
against it (if negative).
Electricity is the movement of charges created by electrons. This
movement is harnessed to do work like that in a light bulb or an electric
fan. In a circuit, a close loop of moving charges, allows its control and use
to do work. Voltage (V) is the difference in charge in a defined space,
current (I) is the rate at which a charge moves, and resistance (R) is the
tendency of a material to cause a change in current.

Figure 1. Flow of charges to produce a current in Amperes (A)

Georg Ohm, a Bavarian Scientist who studied electricity, created the

Ohms Law, an equation that describes resistance as defined by current
and voltage. Materials that obey the Ohms Law are called ohmic
materials while those that do not are non-ohmic. A potential difference
applied across the ends of a wire produces a current through it. The

resistance, as defined by Ohms law, is the ratio between the potential

difference (V) and current (I).

Figure 2. Ohms Law triangle

Ohms law shows direct proportionality between voltage and current

when resistance is independent of both and remains constant. Ohmic
materials follow this proportionality while non-ohmic materials show a
nonlinear voltage vs current relationship.
The resistance of a conducting wire depends on its length, L, and crosssectional area, A, given by the equation:

R=
where

L
A

(1)

is the resistivity of the wire material. Resistivity is defined by

the composition of the wire and its temperature with the equation:

( T )= 20 [1+ ( T20 C )]
(2)
where T is temperature in degrees Celsius,

20 C , and
II.

20

is the resistivity at

is the temperature coefficient of resistance.

Methodology
The materials needed are: PASCOTM power supply, a multimeter, a
digital thermometer, a micrometer caliper, a small light bulb, connector
wires with alligator clips and banana plugs and a 2-m long resistance wire
set as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3. 2-m resistance wire set-up

A.
resistivity

and

20

Metal

( x

m)
wire
measured
fairly
each
resistance
at those
estimates
wires
diameter.

Silver
Copper
Aluminum
Gold
Nichrome
German
Nickel
Mercury

(
-1

10-8
10-8
10-8
10-8
10-6
10-7

0.0040
0.0042
0.0038
0.0040
0.0004
0.0004

9.57 x 10-7

0.0009

1.65
1.78
3.21
2.42
1.00
3.30

x
x
x
x
x
x

Estimating
resistance
Temperature
and
diameter
were
at three (3) points
distanced
from
other on the 2-m
wire. Measurements
points were used as
to the resistance
temperature
and

The multimeter was set to ohmmeter mode at the range of a single

decimal reading. Each terminal of the multimeter was connected to
each end of the wire and a measurement of resistance was obtained.

Table 1. Resistivity and temperature coefficients for some common metals

( T )= 20 [1+ ( T20 C )]
(1)
Using values in Table 1, the resistivity of wire was computed using
Equation 2. A measurement of resistance was acquired using Equation 1.
With the resistance acquired from the ohmmeter reading and from the
computations, % deviation was then computed.
B. Variation of voltage with current for a 2-m resistance wire
Power supplys voltage knob set to zero and current knob set to
maximum, the 2-m resistance wire was put in series with the power
supply. By adjusting gradually, voltage is raised to attain a 0.1 A current.
This was the base voltage-current reading. Voltage was then raised so
current will also raise in 0.1 A increments. Voltage and current readings
were recorded.
C. Variation of current with resistance for a 2-m resistance wire

With the power supply turned off, the 2-m resistance wire was put in
series with the power supply, one clip fixed at one end (clip A) and the
other with the purpose of changing its position later in the experiment
(clip B). The initial set-up was to connect each terminal to each end of the
wire so that current will run through the entire length of the wire. Power
supply was then turned on; adjusted the voltage knob to attain a current
reading between 0.3 A to 0.6 A. Voltage was kept at 1.5 V attaining 0.42 A
at full length. The position of the clip B was changed and clipped to
lengths specified.
Current readings at each length were recorded. The power supply was
then turned off and replaced by the ohmmeter. Resistances at each length
were measured and recorded.
D. Variation of voltage with resistance for a 2-m resistance wire
The 2-m resistance wire was put to the same set-up as the one in Part
C. Power supply was then turned on; adjusted voltage knob to attain a
current between 0.4 A to 0.8 A. Current was to be kept at 0.6 A. Clip B was
then adjusted to points reducing effective length of wire at lengths
specified. Voltage was adjusted to keep current at 0.6 A. Voltage values at
each length was recorded.
E. Variation of voltage with current for a small light bulb

Figure 4. Circuit diagram for measuring the voltage and current across the light bulb

With the power supply turned off, voltage knob at zero and current
knob at maximum, the light bulb was put to series with the multimeter
and power supply as shown in Figure 2. Multimeter was set to ammeter
mode at range wherein readings of current is at mA with three decimal
places.
Power supply was then turned on. Voltage was increased in increments
of 0.1 V. At 1.0 V mark, increments were raised to 0.5 V until 5.0 V. Voltage
readings from power supply and current readings from ammeter were
recorded. Current and voltage reading at which the bulb started to radiate
was noted.

III.

Results and Discussion

The physical properties of the wire which relates to its resistivity were
measured. Table 2 shows the values of the temperature and diameter of
the wire for each of three trials. The best estimate for the diameter was
solved to be 2.8x10-4m. Using the diameter, the cross-section area was
computed to be 6.16x10-8 m2. The average temperature of the whole wire
was 27.930c. The resistivity of the wire was found to be 3.31x10 -7 using
equation (2). The resistance can further be found using equation (1) which
was calculated to be 10.75. Comparing the calculated resistance to the
measured one, it had a percent deviation of 207.22%.
Trial
1
2
3
Best
Estimate

Diameter
(m)
0.00026
0.00029
0.00029
0.00028

Temp(0c)
28
27.8
28
27.93

Table 2. Measured diameter and temperature of wire

Maintaining the length and resistance of the wire to be constant at 2m

and 3.5 respectively, the voltage readings was obtained at increasing
values of current. Table 3 shows the current-voltage pairs gathered.
Current(I)
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5

Voltage(
V)
0.3
0.6
1
1.3
1.6

Table 3. Voltage and current values of wire at constant resistance

Figure 5 shows the plot of voltage vs. current values. It had a R 2 value
of 0.9973 supporting their strongly correlated linear relationship. The
slope of the best fit equation corresponds to the resistance in the equation
V = IR. The slope was 3.3 which was close to the resistance of the wire
being 3.5 with 5.71% deviation. The y-intercept was -0.03 which was the
error value.

2
1.5
Voltage (V)

f(x) = 3.3x - 0.03

R = 1

1
0.5
0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Current (A)

Figure 5. Voltage vs. Current graph for wire

Table 4 shows the values of current and resistance when the length of
the resistance wire was varied with constant voltage of 1.5V.
Length(c
m)
200
180
160
140
120
100

Current(I
)
0.42
0.45
0.49
0.52
0.56
0.61

Resistanc
e()
3.3
3
2.7
2.3
2.1
1.8

Table 4. Current and Resistance of wire of varying length

The values of the current versus the reciprocal of the resistance were
plotted and are shown in Figure 6. The values are strongly correlated
having a R2 value of 0.9887. Using I=V/R, the slope of the best-fit equation
represents the voltage used. The slope was calculated to be 0.73 which
was just about half of the experimental 1.5V. The error value which was
the y-intercept being 0.2049 was relatively high.

0.8
0.6
Current (A)

f(x) = 0.74x + 0.2

R = 0.99

0.4
0.2

0
0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6
1/Resistance (-1)

Figure 6. Current vs. 1/Resistance graph of wire

Figure 7 shows the graph of Resistance vs. length. It was also strongly
correlated linearly having 0.9949 as R 2 value. Using the equation R =
L/A, the slope of the best fit line represents the value of /A. The slope of
the equation was 0.0151 while the y-intercept was 0.2619 representing
the error. The value can be calculated to be 9.30 x 10 -8 with percent
deviation of 71.9% from the previously calculated .
4
3
Resistance ()

f(x) = 0.02x + 0.26

R = 0.99

1
0
80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220
Wire length (cm)

Figure 7. Resistance vs. Length graph of wire

At constant current of 0.6A, the voltage was also measured with

varying lengths and using the corresponding resistance. Table 5 shows the
data gathered.
length
200
180
160
140

voltage
2.2
2
1.8
1.5

resistanc
e
3.3
3
2.7
2.3

120
100

1.3
1.1

2.1
1.8

Table 5. Voltage and resistance of wire at varying length

A plot of the voltage vs. resistance is shown in Figure 8. It is strongly

correlated with R2 value of 0.9973. Using V = IR, the slope of the best-fit
equation represents the current. The slope of the equation is 0.7438
having a 23.97% deviation from the measured 0.6A of current. The yintercept 0.2343 gives the error value.
3
2
Voltage (V)

f(x) = 0.74x - 0.23

R = 1

0
1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4
Resistance ()

Figure 8. Voltage vs. Resistance graph of wire

Figure 9 shows the data of current readings from increasing the voltage
at small values. It is strongly correlated with R 2 value of 0.9919. It has a
slope of 0.0042 and y-intercept of 0.0039. The bulb started to radiate
when the current and voltage was 0.013A and 2.0V respectively. The
shape of the graph is linear which is the same as the voltage vs current
graph of the resistance wire. The light bulb obeys ohms law because of it
having a linear V and I relationship passing to the origin.

0.03
0.03

f(x) = 0x + 0
R = 0.99

0.02
Current (A)

0.02
0.01
0.01
0
0

Voltage (V)

Figure 9. Current vs. Voltage graph of light bulb

IV.

Sources of Error
Many of the values obtained results to a high percent deviation with
the theoretical or measured values which can be caused by different
errors. The very high deviation for the calculation of the resistance could
have been caused by the copper wire connectors having different
constants with the resistance wire when calculating for the resistivity.
Machine error contributed greatly in the experiment. The measurement of
the voltage, current, or resistance easily fluctuates and difficult to
stabilize. The readings sometimes goes unusually high from a current
trend. One minor source of error on the resistance is the heating up on the
wire when current passes which results to a higher resistivity. Also, the
measurement in the setup for the wire was not precise and the wire was
not exactly straight.

V.

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