Investigate the Resistance of a Wire

Investigate the Resistance of a Wire

Planning section

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During this experiment, I shall begin with a preliminary investigation

in order to aid my final practical to be as accurate as humanely

possible.

Preliminary experiment

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Apparatus

In this investigation I shall need:

* A piece of constantan wire, longer than 100 cm

* Two ammeters, both analogue and digital

* Two voltmeters, both analogue and digital

* A power pack

* A 100 cm ruler

Diagram

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Method

The apparatus was set up as shown in the diagram. Although in this

investigation's preliminary experiment I shall not be taking results,

I shall be entertaining the ideas of ways to improve the experiment. I

shall set up the circuit as shown in the diagram, and I shall be

investigating:

1 - If Analogue or digital meters are better

2 - Which voltage to use

3 - Which lengths to collect results from

Evaluation

During this experiment, as afore mentioned in the method, I explored

what was the best possible way of conducting the final experiment? I

have included in this section which methods of experimentation I shall

be using in the final practical;

Digital or analogue

The reason that during the practical investigation I used both digital

and analogue meters was to establish which of the two would be best

suited to my particular investigations. During the practical I

observed several key problems and several benefits of both. Analogue

meters did not 'flicker' between two readings, but as they were not

digital made it subsequently difficult to read accurately to two

decimal places - a problem which the digital meters did not have. The

digital meters although they had difficulties with 'flickering' they

tended to rest on a specific value for the majority of the readings,

and as they measured accurately to two decimal places, I dubbed them