SRI RAM DAYAL KHEMKA VIVEKANANDA VIDHYALAYA JUNIOR COLLEGE

THIRUVOTRIYUR, CHENNAI 600019

(Affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education New Delhi)
Unit of Vivekananda Educational Society [REGD]

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified to be the bonafide project work done by Master/Miss R.SHARANRAJ

of class XII in Sri Ram Dayal Khemka Vivekananda Vidhyalaya Junior College,
Thiruvotriyur, Chennai 600019 during the year 2017 2018.

Dated : Staff in charge

Submitted for All India Senior Secondary practical Examination in

PHYSICS at Sri Ram Dayal Khemka Vivekananda Vidhyalaya Junior College,
Chennai 600 019.

Dated : Principal Examiner

Seal :
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement.

No one who achieves success does so without
acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident and
confident acknowledges this help with gratitude.
The development of project requires cooperation,
concentration, contribution and sacrifice on the part of numerous
individuals.
I express my sincere thanks to my beloved Correspondent
Sri R.V.Ramalingam ji and my beloved Principal Smt K.Sujatha
and the school administration for equipping us with excellent
infrastructure, laboratory amenities and for their moral support.
I am also grateful to my Physics teachers Smt K.Sujatha,
Smt M.Thilagavathy and Smt S.Sheeba, our lab assistants
Kum C.Malathi and Smt.Renuka Devi, our librarian
Smt R.Niranjani, for their timely inspiration, valuable and
encouragement.
I extend my thanks to my seniors and all my friends for
giving me moral support till the end, to complete the project
successfully. I also clinch this opportunity to thank my parents who
have served as the back bone, in the completion of project. The
Supreme Lord, God has enabled me to complete this project in a
perfect manner and I offer him my sincere tributes.
CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENT
AIM
APPARATUS REQUIRED
THEORY
PROCEDURE
APPLICATIONS OF LDRs
USES OF LDRs
ADVANTAGES OF LDRs
OBSEVATIONS
CONLUSION
PRECAUTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION:

A photo resistor or light dependent resistor is a component that is sensitive

to light. When light falls upon it then the resistance changes.

Values of the resistance of the LDR may change over many orders of
magnitude the value of the resistance falling as the level of resistance
increases.

It is not uncommon for the values of the resistance of an LDR or photo

resistor to be in several mega ohms in darkness and to fall to a few hundred
ohms in bright light. With such a wide variation in resistance, LDRs are easy
to use and there are many LDR circuits available.
When the light level falls, the resistances of the LDR increase. As this
resistance increases in relation to the other resistor, which has a fixed
resistance, it causes the voltage dropped across the LDR to also increase.

When this voltage is large enough (0.7 V for a typical NPN transistor), it will
cause the transistor to turn on.

The value of the fixed resistor will depend on the LDR used, the transistor
used and the supply voltage.

Light dependent resistors are often used in circuits where it is necessary to

detect the presence of level of light. They can be described by a variety of
names from light dependent resistor, photo resistor or even photo cell or
photoconductor.

In view of their low cost, ease of manufacture and use of LDRs are a
particularly convenient electronics component to use.

The resistance of an LDR decreases as the intensity of the light falling on it

increases. Incident photons drive electrons from valence band into the
conduction band. The process is progressive and as more light shines on the
LDR.
So more electrons are released top conduct electricity and the resistance of
the LDR in the dark and in full light conditions.

Many materials can be used, but one popular material for these photo
resistors is Cadmium Sulphide (CdS). A Pigment, Copperpthalocyanine can
also be used in LDRs.

EXPERIMENT:
Aim:
To study the effect of intensity of light by varying distance of the
source on an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor)

Apparatus Required:
Light Source, LDR, a multimeter and a source of intense light (a lamp
bulb with a battery eliminator)

Theory:
Light Dependent Resistor:
The Light Dependent Resistor are the devices for detecting and
measuring electromagnetic waves.
Its working is based upon principle of variation of photo conductivity
when radiation is incident upon it and absorbed by I.
 An LDR is prepared from Cadmium Sulphide (CdS). Its resistance
depends upon the resistance and duration of light incident on it.

A good quality LDR shows resistance variation from 1M in complete

darkness to about 10 in full day light. The intensity of light decreases
inversely with increase in the square of distance.

Procedure:
Measuring resistance in terms of distance :
1. Turn the selector switch and set it on R for the measurement of
resistance, in multimeter.
2. Plug the metallic ends of black probe in terminal mark common in
multimeter and that of red in terminal marked as P.
Short the other metallic ends and adjust the R adjusting to get
full scale deflection reading at 0 (zero ohm) in the meter.
3. Touch the metallic probes to the two metal ends of the LDR and
read the value of the resistance when the source is kept at the
 distance of 5cm, fixing the source of light in a stand and keeping
the LDR vertically below it.
Moving the source to 10cm distance from the LDR.
Moving the source to 12, 14, 16 cm from LDR and repeating
the observation for 3 more times.
Measuring resistance in three times of time :
1. Turn the selectors switch and set it on R for the measurement of
resistance in multimeter.
2. Plug the metallic ends of black probe in terminal marked in
multimeter and that of red in terminal marked as P.
Short the other metallic ends and adjust the R to get full scale
deflection reading at zero ohms at multimeter.
3. Touch the metallic probes to ends of the LDR and read the value
of resistance when the source is kept at the distance of 2cm
fixing the source light in stand and keeping the LDR vertically
below it.
Allowing the light from source to fall on LDR for a minute.
Allowing the light from the source to fall on LDR for 2 to 3
minutes.

The most common type of LDR has a resistance that falls with an increase in
the light intensity falling upon the device. The resistance of an LDR may
typically have the following resistance :
Daylight = 5,000
Dark = 2,00,00,000
Applications of LDR:
There are many applications for light dependent resistors. These
includes:
Lighting switch:
The most obvious application for an LDR is to automatically turn
on a light at certain light level. An example of this could be a street light
or a garden light.
Camera shutter control:
LDRs can be used to control the shutter speed on a camera. The
LDR would be used to measure the light intensity and set the camera
shutter speed to the appropriate level.

Uses of LDR:
It can be used in street lights.
It can be used in mining areas.
It can be used in hilly areas.
By using laser, it can be used for safety purposes.
It can be used in frontier areas.
It can be used in houses.

Advantages of LDR:
Collection of parts of the circuit is easily available.
Accuracy of this circuit is more than accuracy of other circuits.
By using laser, it can be used for the security purposes.
It can be used to stop the wastage of electricity.
 The cost of circuit is low.
This circuit saves man power.
Observations:
Measuring resistance in terms of distance:
S.No Distance between LDR and Resistance of LDR
source (m) when placed in
front of ()
25W 40W 60W
1 0.10 390 300 250
2 0.15 690 530 410
3 0.20 1010 770 570
4 0.25 1320 970 720
5 0.30 1680 1210 910
6 0.35 1880 1430 1170

Measuring resistance in terms of time:

S.No Time (min) Resistance of
LDR when placed
in front of ()
25W 40W 60W
1 0 870 600 410
2 1 860 590 400
3 2 840 570 380
4 3 810 560 370
5 4 790 540 350
6 5 770 510 330
Graph:

Conclusion:
When the distance between light source and LDR increases the
resistance of LDR increases.
When the time allowed for the lift to fall on LDR increases the
resistance increases.

Precautions:
No stay light should fall on the LDR.
It is better to work at the dark room.
Connect LDR carefully to the voltage storage.
Bibliography:
XII Comprehensive Physics Practical
edgefxkits.com
kitronik.co.uk
elprocus.com
quora.com
wikipedia.org