Lab.

1: Simple Linear Circuit Analysis

Philippe Piot (February 9th, 2007) 1. Ohm's Law The circuit shown in Figure 1 was built with resistance R=1 and then 10 k. For these two values of the resistance, the voltage was varied from 0 to 10 V and the corresponding measured current was recorded. Tables 1 and 2 present the obtained experimental data.

Figure 1: Circuit built to verify Ohm's law. The voltage source provides a tunable DC voltage, and the resistance was set to 1 and 10 k.

Set Voltage (V) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Measured Current (mA) 0.0 0.99 1.95 2.89 3.95 4.85 5.89 6.99 7.93 8.84 9.97

Table 1: Measured current dependence versus voltage for R=1 k.

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Set Voltage (V) Measured Current (mA) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 0.08 0.18 0.29 0.39 0.48 0.59 0.69 0.78 0.88 0.99

Table 2: Measured current dependence versus voltage for R=10 k.

The data presented in Tables 1 and 2 are plotted in Figures 1 and 2 respectively. For both set of data, dI the relation between current and voltage is linear. The slopes of these lines, , directly give the dV dI 1 = resistance value via . A linear regression of the data give the slope and its inverse directly dV R provide the value of the resistance.

Figure 2: Measured current versus set voltage for R=1k in circuit shown in Figure 1.The squares are the experimental measurement, and the red line the result of a linear regression.

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dI 4 =9.9410 mA/V and the dv corresponding resistance is 1.006 k, i.e. within 0.6% in agreement with the expected value of 1 k. dI 3 =1.0110 mA/V. The inferred For data shown in Figure 3, we computed the slope to be dv resistance value is 9.96 k, i.e. within 0.4% in agreement with the expected value of 10 k.

For the data presented in Figure 2, we computed the slope to be

Figure 3: Measured current versus set voltage for R=10k in circuit shown in Figure 1. The squares are the experimental measurements, and the red line the result of a linear regression.

In summary we have demonstrated Ohm's law, by (1) verifying that the voltage drop across a resistor is proportional to the current flowing through the resistor, and (2) showing, for two cases of resistances, that the coefficient of proportionality is the resistance associated to the resistor. 2. Nonlinear Effects The resistor shown in Figure 1 was replaced by an incandescent bulb, and a set of data of current versus set voltage was recorded. The raw data are gathered in Table 3 and a corresponding plot is presented in Figure 4. The relationship between the current and voltage is no more linear. As the voltage increases, the current rate of increase is decreasing: the local slope of the curve decrease indicating that the resistance (which is related to the inverse of the slope) increases with the voltage.

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Set Voltage (V) 0 0.5000 1.0000 2.0000 3.0000 4.0000 5.0000 6.0000 7.0000 8.0000 9.0000 10.0000

Measured Current (mA) 0 50 73 95 105 125 130 140 160 170 180 185

Table 3: Measured current dependence versus voltage for the circuit of Figure 1. The resistance as been replaced with a incandescent light bulb.

Figure 4: Measured current versus set voltage for the case where the resistance shown in Figure 1 is replaced by an incandescent bulb.

3. Series Circuit The circuit shown in Figure 5 was built. The DC voltage provided by the voltage source was set to 5 V. The voltage across each resistor was measured; see Table 4 for a summary of the measurements. The current was measured to be I=0.64 mA by inserting an ampre-meter in series between the source and R1. Because the circuit consists of one closed path with resistors only, the current at any location in the circuit is 0.64 mA.

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Figure 5: Circuit built to verify the Kirchoff's voltage law. The resistance values are R1=1, R2=2.2 and R3=4.7 k .

Resistor R1 R2 R3

Voltage across resistor (V) 0.63 1.40 3.00

Table 4: Voltage measured across each resistor for the circuit presented in Figure 5. The current flowing through the circuit was measured to be 0.64 mA.

From Table 4, we easily verify the Kirchoff's voltage law: the sum of the voltage across each resistors is 0.63+1.40+3.0 = 5.03 V in agreement with our set voltage on the source (5 V). We can also experimentally determine the equivalent resistance of the series circuit: from V circuit = Rcircuit I circuit , we find Rcircuit =5 /0.64103=7.81 k, a value in decent agreement with the expected value 7.9 k (since Rcircuit =R 1R2 R3 for a series circuit). 4. Parallel Circuit The circuit shown in Figure 6 was built and an ampre-meter. The DC voltage provided by the voltage source was set to 5 V. The voltage across the branches was measured to be 5.0 V and the current in each branch was measured by inserting an ampre-meter in series with the resistors in each branch; the measured currents are presented in Table 5. The current was also measured in the main branch and found to be 8.37 mA.

Figure 6: Circuit built to verify the Kirchoff's current law. The resistance values are R1=1, R2=2.2 and R3=4.7 k.

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Branch containing resistor R1 R2 R3

Current in branch (mA) 5.02 2.33 1.01

Table 5: Current measured in each branch for the circuit presented in Figure 5. The voltage across each resistor is approximately 5 V. .

From Table 5, we easily verify the Kirchoff's current law: the sum of the current flowing in each branch is is 5.02+2.33+1.01=8.36 mA, a value in close agreement with the measured current upstream of the branches (8.37 mA). We can also experimentally determine the equivalent resistance of the series circuit: from V circuit = Rcircuit I circuit , we find Rcircuit =5 /8.37103 =597 , a value in decent agreement with the expected value 599.8 (since Rcircuit =1 /1/ R11/ R2 1/ R3 for a parallel circuit).

Phys 375, Lab report #1