Section 1: Multimeter

Our first task was to turn the multimeter on and measure the resistance of a wire. It is assumed
that the resistance of a wire is near 0 Ohms, but still larger than 0 because the wire is a physical object
that is not a superconductor. We indeed observed a reading of about .3 or .4 Ohms when we connected
a wire via banana cables to the multimeter. The resistance measurement/sensitivity was set to 200
Ohms on the multimeter when we measured the resistance of the wire.
Next we used the multimeter to measure the resistance of the fuse in the RRPP cable. One end
off the Multimeter wire was touched to the red prong on the RRPP cable, and the other end of the
Multimeter wire was touched to the corresponding end on the RRPP cable. This completed a circuit
around the red half of the RRPP cable, which is the half that contains the fuse, and the Multimeter
was used to measure the resistance of this half. At first we used the continuity measurement on the
Multimeter to make sure we had a complete circuit (that the fuse was not blown), and it beeped
signaling a positive response. We measured the resistance of the red half of the RRPP cable and it
read near .5 Ohms when using the 200 Ohms sensitivity. This measurement makes sense, because the
fuse should have a resistance near 0, and the slight increase in resistance is due to the extra length of
wire from the RRPP cable in addition to the wire connected to the multimeter. The fuse is in place on
the wire to protect against large currents that could damage whatever equipment is connected to the
wire, but it should not effect the resistance of the wire or the resistance of the circuit created using the
wire. When we used a sensitivity larger than 200 Ohms on the multimeter, the reading was a 0,
because those settings are not sensitive enough to pick up a resistance smaller than 1 Ohm.
We then used the multimeter to measure the voltage of a 9V battery. Using the 20V sensitivity
we connected two end of the wire to the battery and the multimeter. It was measured at 8.07 Volts.
Other voltage sensitivity settings gave a less precise answer (such as rounding to 9), or displayed that
the Voltage was too large to be read (by the 2V sensitivity setting).
Section 2: LoggerPro and Voltage Probe
We then attached a voltage probe to the computer and read data via LoggerPro. The LoggerPro
voltage probe measured the voltage of the 9V battery at 8.091 Volts, demonstrating that the voltage
resolution goes to 3 decimal places, and we know from the lab handout has a maximum magnitude of
10 Volts.
LoggerPro was used to measure a signal being broadcast to the red outlets and transferred with
the RRPP cable. First we used the multimeter, connected to the two ends of the RRPP cable (which
was connected to red outlet), to measure the signal. The multimeter gave us no useful information
because it appeared the signal was time varying. See attached Figure 1 for LoggerPro analysis of this
time varying signal.
We then generated a signal via the function generator and attached it to LoggerPro. This
function was adjusted to have a frequency within 10% of the previous signal, see attached Figure 2 for
analysis. Lastly we generated a 1kHz sine wave. See attached figure 3 for analysis.
Section 3: Oscilloscope
Lastly we used an Oscilloscope to measure a signal (about 50 Hz) generated by function
generator. After making the proper adjustments, we used the cursors to observe a period of around .
0196 seconds. The expected period would be around .02 seconds, so the expected and observed are
very close, and any difference is probably due to the imprecise nature of the function generators dial.
Conclusion:
A few things are abundantly clear from this lab. First, the multimeter is useful for constant
voltages, but since it only reads out one output at a time and has no history function, it is not very
useful for time varying signals. Second, LoggerPro is quite useful for data analysis, but has a lower
maximum sampling rate than the oscilloscope, making it more difficult for high frequency signals.
Lastly, the Oscilloscope does not have the data analysis features and easy read out that LoggerPro does,
making it not as much of an ideal option for lower frequency signals.