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Lab Report #4
Wheatstone Bridge
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Abstract
This lab was conducted in order to gain familiarization with the Wheatstone Bridge method for finding the resistance
in a resistor of unknown value. This is technology that predates the digital multimeter, however the theory is still
applicable, and is in fact at work within a digital ohmmeter. For this experiment a Wheatstone bridge circuit was
constructed from component parts and used to determine the resistance of 5 different lengths of conductive wire.
Measurements were made for each of the five coils and the resistance calculated analytically. The results were
compared to a direct reading made with a digital ohmmeter. Four of the five coils were found to have a resistance
value within 2% error of the reading made directly from a multimeter. The remaining coil provided a large value for
the error and was considered suspect. Finally, the resistivity was calculated experimentally for the coils and
produced a large degree of error. This was suspected to be a result of unaccounted for internal resistance of the many
components involved in the Wheatstone bridge apparatus.