VARIABLES AFFECTING RESISTANCE

There are four factors that affect the resistance of a wire:

Resistance is proportional to length. If you take a wire of different lengths and
give each a particular potential difference across its ends. The longer the wire the less
volts each centimetre of it will get. This means that the 'electric slope' that makes the
electrons move gets less steep as the wire gets longer, and the average drift velocity of
electrons decreases. The correct term for this 'electric slope' is the potential gradient.
A smaller potential gradient (less volts per metre) means current decreases with
increased length and resistance increases.

Resist
ance is
inversely

proportional to cross-sectional-area. The bigger the cross sectional area of the wire
the greater the number of electrons that experience the 'electric slope' from the
potential difference. As the length of the wire does not change each cm still gets the
same number of volts across it - the potential gradient does not change and so the
average drift velocity of individual electrons does not change. Although they do not
move any faster there are more of them moving so the total charge movement in a
given time is greater and current flow increases. This means resistance decreases.
This does not give rise to a straight line graph as cross sectional area is inversely
proportional to resistance not directly proportional to it.

Resist
ance
depends on
the
material
the wire is

made of. The more tightly an atom holds on to its outermost electrons the harder it
will be to make a current flow. The electronic configuration of an atom determines
how willing the atom will be to allow an electron to leave and wander through the

lattice. If a shell is almost full the atom is reluctant to let its electrons wander and the
material it is in is an insulator. If the outermost shell (or sub-shell with transition
metals) is less than half full then the atom is willing to let those electrons wander and
the material is a conductor.

Resistance increases with the temperature of the wire. The hotter wire has a larger
resistance because of increased vibration of the atomic lattice. When a material gets
hotter the atoms in the lattice vibrate more. This makes it difficult for the electrons to
move without interaction with an atom and increases resistance. The relationship
between resistance and temperature is not a simple one.

( (alpha) is the thermal resistance

coefficient)

REFERENCE
http://www.cyberphysics.co.uk/topics/electricity/higher_electricity/resistance.htm