Lecture Notes: Ohms Law!

Lab Richard Myott Introduction: Todays lab we will be furthering students understanding of Ohms Law. **Remember that Ohms law says that R = V/I (R = resistance, V = voltage, I = current) We will learn how to use the multimeters to collect data on the voltage and current and then graph them on Microsoft Excel Check out the equipment on the center table here:: o The power box will be our power source o One Multimeter will be to measure voltage and the other to measure current o The alligator clip wires will hold the series circuit together while we measure our data o The little white blocks with wires sticking out are resistors **The label on the resistor will have its resistance but it may not be accurate so we will first pass out a resistor to each group and measure the resistance Procedure: Students will listen to and paraphrase in your own words the instructions that I am going over. Log on to your computers and find my website rmyot001 Go to the resources tab and find the multimeter manual page o We will be looking at which jacks we should be plugging into o How to place the connectors in the circuit to measure Voltage o How to place the connectors in the circuit to measure Current o How to place the connectors in the circuit to measure Resistance Since there is only One setup, we will be doing groups of three (and one group of 4) and one group will come up at a time o If you are not the group using the equipment: If you have already collected data, input the data into Microsoft Excel and create a graph of the data and answer the questions about the lab If you have not collected data, go onto my website and practice with the online circuits practice resource When you come up to collect data: o Bring a pen, a sheet of paper, and your resistor o Measure the true resistance of your resistor and write it down o Create a data table to collect the voltage and current of each trial o Create the series circuit containing: Your resistor The power source The multimeter measuring the current o Connect the multimeter outside the circuit o Set the multimeters to their appropriate settings o Turn the power source on barely o Collect 10 data points (all below 10 Volts) When you are finished collecting data return to your seats and plug it into Microsoft Excel o Create a column labeled Voltage and input all your collected voltages beneath it o Create a column labeled Current and input all your collected currents beneath it

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Highlight all data points and at the top, select the Insert tab and select a scatter plat without connecting lines Right click in a white space of the graph and move chart to a new sheet Right-click on one of the data points and select add-trendline Check the box- Display equation on chart The slope of the resulting trendline will be close to the resistance of your resistor- V/I Finally, click the Layout tab at the top Label the x and y axis Give the graph a name

Conclusion: In Microsoft Word answer the following Questions o Does the resistor obey Ohms law? o What is the percent error? %error = |(experimental accepted)/accepted|x100 o List 3 possible sources of error What might have been a factor in getting a different resulting resistance? Turn in your printed graph and your question answers