Investigation into the resistance of a wire
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Investigation into the resistance of a wire
In this investigation I will try to find out how the length of a wire affects resistance. I will make sure to keep the type of wire, diameter of the wire, voltage, and approximate temperature constant so the data I collect will be valid.
Also I must be careful about safety when working with electricity. Since we are testing for resistance we must be careful that the wire does not over heat and burn us or melt. We can avoid this by having a small voltage which reduces the heat loss in the wire and thus the risk of burns.
Equipment List:
Standard copper wire
Ammeter
Electronic Voltmeter
Battery
Constantan wire 70-10cm
The circuit I will use has an ammeter to read the current across the whole circuit and a voltmeter to measure the voltage across the wire. From this using Ohm's law I can work out the resistance. I will firstly use 70cm of wire in the gap and read the current and voltage then decrease the length of the wire by 10cm intervals until I reach 10cm. This will give me enough results to create a graph that will show trends even with some erroneous results.
Length of wire Current Voltage Resistance
50cm 0...