Relationship Between the Resistance and the Length of a Wire

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Relationship Between the Resistance and the Length of a Wire Aim: To find the relationship between the resistance of the wire and

the length of the wire

Background

Factors:

i. Temperature : If the wire is heated up the atoms in the wire will

start to vibrate because of their

increase in energy. This causes more collisions between the electrons

and the atoms as

the atoms are moving into the path of the electrons. This increase in

collisions means that

there will be an increase in resistance.

ii. Material : The type of material will affect the amount of free

electrons which are able to flow through the wire. The number of

electrons depends on the amount of electrons in the outer energy

shell of the atoms , so if there are more or larger atoms then there

must be more electrons

available. Also if the atoms in the material are closely packed then

the electrons will have more frequent collisions and the resistance

will increase.

iii. Wire length : If the length of the wire is increased then the

resistance will also increase as the

electrons will have a longer distance to travel and so more collisions

will occur. Due to this

the length increase should be proportional to the resistance increase.

iv. Wire width : If the wires width is increased the resistance will

decrease. Due to this increased space between the atoms there should

be less collisions.

The factor I am going to change is the length of the wire. To measure

and record the findings for this factor would be simple and the

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