Resistance of a Wire

555 Words2 Pages

Resistance of a Wire

Planning:

I am going to design an experiment to measure how the length of the

wire affect the resistance in the wire. I will use the same wire for

all my measurements. It is important to have a fair test, so the

cross-sectional area of the wire must be the same for all measurements

because as the cross-sectional area increase the resistance decrease.

It is also important to have the wire made of the same material

because different materials have different resistance, nichrome is the

good conductor of electricity .The temperature also affect the

resistance because when it increase the resistance in the wire

increase. To get the correct and accurate measurements it is important

to keep all the factors that affect the resistance the same and only

vary the length.

Predicting:

The longer a wire, the greater its resistance. This is because the

charges have further to go through the material; there is more chance

of collisions with the atoms of the material

Selecting the most suitable apparatus:

For my experiment I will use metre rule, ammeter, voltmeter, battery

and copper wire. metre rule: I will use it to measure the length of

the copper wire Ammeter: I will use it to measure the size of a

current flowing through the wire. The electric current flowing through

the circuit is measured in amperes or amps. It does not matter where

to put the ammeter in the circuit because the current is the same

everywhere. The ammeter has to be connected in series, it is important

to connect an ammeter so that its red (+) terminal is always nearer to

the positive pole of the cell than to the negative pole. Voltmeter: Is

used to measure the potential difference (p.d.) it is measured in

volts (V). The voltmeter must be connected in parallel, across a

component (nichrome wire). As with an ammeter, the voltmeter must be

connected the correct way round (positive to positive). To get accrued

readings I will have to use digital ammeter and voltmeter.

Open Document