Physics 222

Ohm's Law
Purpose: to investigate a common relationship between current and voltage
Equipment: Two resistors (each having resistance > 1000 ohms), 4 alligator clips, a variable voltage
supply, a voltmeter, an ammeter, 2 red cables and 2 black cables
Overview: Some materials obey Ohm's law which states that the electric current (I) flowing through the
material is proportional to the electric potential difference (V, aka voltage difference) across the material.
More particularly, V = IR where R is a constant of proportionality called the resistance. If I is in units of
Amperes (1 A = 1 Coulomb/second) and V is in units of Volts, then R has units of Ohm (1 = 1 V/A). A
resistor is a device that obeys Ohms law and is commonly used in electric circuits to control the flow of
current. We will determine resistances of two different resistors by measuring the electric current passing
through each resistor while simultaneously measuring the electric potential difference across each resistor.
Figure 1
2nd red cable
+

d
second
resistor

1st black cable

voltage
supply
ammeter

1st red cable

A
c

first
resistor

2nd black cable

Procedure
1) Record the color code of your resistors. 1st: ___________________ 2nd: ___________________
2) Configure the circuit of Figure 1 using the resistors, the voltage supply, the ammeter, the cables, and the
alligator clips. Make sure that the ammeter is connected in series with the circuit (common to negative of
voltage supply). Use the alligator clips to connect the resistors to the cables. Attach 4 small pieces of
masking tape to circuit and label them a, b, c and d so that they match the circuit diagram.
3) After the instructor has examined your circuit, turn the voltage setting to the minimum, turn on both the
ammeter and the voltage supply. Observe the value of the ammeter and slowly turn up the setting on the
voltage supply. If the ammeter value remains zero, then the fuse likely needs replacing. Contact the
instructor to do so. Otherwise, turn up the voltage supply to the maximum and record the maximum
ammeter reading below. The current step-size is the maximum current divided by 5. Calculate and record
below.
maximum current = ________________(amps).
current step size = __________________(amps)
4) Adjust the voltage supply so that the current equals one times the current step size.
5) Using the voltmeter (in parallel), measure the potential from a to b, b to c, c to d, and d to a. Record the
values in the table below. The starting point should be connected to the negative input of the voltmeter and
the ending point should be connected to the positive input. Also record the current reading. Add the
voltages to find the voltage around the loop and record Vloop in the data table below.
6) Increase the current by one step-size and repeat until the table is completely filled in.
Data Table: Current and Voltage Data
Trial
Current
Vab
(amps)
(volts)
1xstep
2xstep
3xstep

4xstep
5xstep

Vbc
(volts)

Vcd
(volts)

Vda
(volts)

Vloop
(volts)

Data Analysis
1) Graphs: Using Excel, make graphs of voltage vs. current for each of the resistors. In particular, make a
1st graph of Vbc vs I (to examine 1st resistor) and a 2nd graph of Vcd vs I (to examine 2nd resistor). Use the
trendline feature to get the slope of each graph. Configure the trendline to pass through the origin and show
the fitted equation on the graph. The slope of 1st graph is the measured resistance of the 1st resistor and the
slope of the 2nd graph is the measured resistance of the 2nd resistor. The expected resistances can be
determined from the color codes (google resistor color codes). Email the Excel file to yourself and provide
printouts of your labeled graphs along with your lab work.
2) Resistance measurements:
Measured R1 () = __________ Expected R1 () = _______________ % diff = __________________
Measured R2 () = __________ Expected R2 () = _______________ % diff = __________________
Questions
1) Does an ammeter have low or high resistance? Explain why this is important.

2) Does an voltmeter have low or high resistance? Explain why this is important.

3) Why must an ammeter never be wired in parallel with a circuit?