PHYS 2426 Lab – 4: DC Circuits

Name: _____________________

Objectives:
 To learn to design and construct simple circuits using batteries, bulbs, wires, and switches,
 To understand the measurement of current and voltage.
 To understand what currents will flow in various parts of simple DC circuits, and why.

OVERVIEW
In the following labs, you are going to discover and extend theories about electric charge and
potential difference (voltage) and apply them to electric circuits. What you learn will be one of the
most practical parts of the whole physics course, since electric circuits form the backbone of modern
technology. Without an understanding of electric circuits, we wouldn’t have lights, air conditioners,
automobiles, TV sets, telephones, computers, or photocopying machines.

A battery is a device that generates an electric potential difference (voltage) from other forms of
energy. The type of batteries we typically use are known as chemical batteries because they convert
internal chemical energy (energy stored in chemical bonds) into electrical energy.

As a result of a potential difference, electric charge is repelled from one terminal of the battery and
attracted to the other. However, no charge can flow out of a battery unless there is a conducting
material connected between its terminals. If this conductor happens to be the filament in a small light
bulb, the flow of charge will cause the light bulb to glow.

Electric Current
The rate of electric charge flow is called electric current. If charge Dq flows through the cross
section of a conduction in time Dt, then the average current can be expressed mathematically by the
relationship
∆q
I=
∆t
Instantaneous current is defined as the charge per unit time passing through a part of a circuit at an
∆ q dq
instant in time. It is defined by using the limit: i= lim =
∆ t →0 ∆ t dt
The unit of current, called the Ampere (A), represents the flow of one coulomb of charge in a time of
one second. Another common unit is the milliampere (mA): 1 ampere = 1000 milliampere (mA).
Usually people just refer to current as “amps” or “milliamps”.

In the next activity, you can begin exploring electric current by lighting a bulb with a battery. You
will be using PHET simulation Circuit Construction Kit: DC - Virtual Lab
(https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab)

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Activity 1-1: Arrangements that Cause a Bulb to Light
Find some arrangements in which the bulb lights and some in which it does not light. For instance,
try the arrangement shown in figure below.

Question 1-1: Sketch two arrangements for which the bulb lights.

Question 1-2: Sketch two arrangements for which the bulb doesn’t light. Upload your sketches.

Question 1-3: Describe as fully as possible the conditions needed for the bulb to light. Explain
why the bulb fails to light in the arrangements drawn in answer to Question 1-2.

Activity 1-2: Other Materials Between the Battery and the Bulb
Next you will explore materials connected between a battery and a bulb allow to light. Since it
seems that something flows from the battery to the bulb, we refer to materials that allow this flow as
conductors and those that don’t as nonconductors or insulators.

Set up the wires, battery, and bulb so that the bulb lights, example, one of the arrangements drawn in
you answer to Question 1-1. Then, stick a variety of the common objects available between the
battery and the bulb.

Question 1-4: List some materials that allow the bulb to light.

Question 1-5: List some materials that prevent the bulb from lighting.

Question 1-6: What type of materials seem to be conductors? What types seem to be
nonconductors?

Prediction 1-1: If you wire up the configuration as shown, will the bulb light with the switch open
(i.e., so no contact between the wires is made)? Closed (i.e., so that contact is made)? Neither time?
Explain your predictions.

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Activity 1-3: Measure Current in a Circuit
To measure the current through a part of the circuit, you must break open the circuit at the point
where you want to measure the current and insert the current measuring device called ammeter. That
is, disconnect the circuit, put in the ammeter, and reconnect with it in place.
Set up an electrical circuit as shown in Prediction 1-1. Connect an ammeter between battery and light
bulb and ammeter between the light bulb and the switch.
Question 1-7: Did you observe a significant difference in the currents flowing at these two
locations in the circuit, or was the current the same?
Question 1-8: What is the direction of current flowing through the circuit? Is current flowing
in same or opposite direction through the ammeters?

Activity 1-4: Measure Voltage

To measure potential difference or voltage, you do not have to break the circuit. The voltage
measuring device used is called voltmeter. You must connect the voltmeter leads one on each side of
the circuit element. Standard practice is to touch the red lead of voltmeter to the positive terminal of
the battery and the black lead to the negative terminal.

Set up an electrical circuit as shown in Prediction 1-1.

Question 1-9: Connect the voltmeter across the battery. What is the voltmeter reading?

Question 1-10: Connect the voltmeter across the light bulb. What is the voltmeter reading?

Question 1-11: What do you observe when you swap the leads of the voltmeter across the light
bulb? Did it affect the current flow?

Use the Ohm’s law V =IR along with measured values of V and I to calculate the resistance of the
light bulb (assuming that the wires are of negligible resistance). Show all your work below.

Resistance of the light bulb: R (calculated) =

Now click on the light bulb in your circuit, the light bulb resistance will be displayed. Write it down
below.

R (actual) =

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Does your calculated value match with the actual value?

Activity 1-5: Current in a Simple Circuit with Light Bulbs

Connect the circuit with two bulbs. Again, measure the voltage across the battery and the current
flowing through each light bulb with the switch closed.

Voltage across the battery: ____________

Current flowing through each light bulb: ____________

Question 1-12: When you added the second bulb to the circuit, did the current through the
battery change significantly (i.e., by more than a few percent)? Did the voltage change
significantly?

Question 1-13: Does the battery appear to be a source of constant current, constant voltage, or
neither when different elements are added to a circuit?

Question 1-14: Based on your observations, how is the brightness of the bulb related to the
current flowing through it?

Activity 1-6: Resistors Connected in Series

1. Set the resistance of each light bulb to the following: R 1 = 5 , R2 = 10 , R3 = 15 .
2. Connect the light bulbs in series as shown:

3. Connect the circuit shown below.

Set the battery voltage to 20 V. Measure the total voltage: V Total = __________

4. Use the voltmeter to measure the across each of the light bulbs. Measure the voltages across each
bulb.
V1 = ________

V2 = _________

V3 = _________

VTotal = V1 + V2 + V3 = ___________

Does VTotal in Step 3 equal VTotal in Step 4?

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5. Use the ammeter to measure the current through each of the light bulbs. Write down the values of
these currents below.
I1 = ________
I2 = _________
I3 = _________

6. Now measure the total current flowing from the battery by placing the ammeter next to the
battery.

Itotal (from the battery) =________

7. Use the Ohm’s law V =IR to calculate the total resistance of the light bulbs (assuming that the
wires are of negligible resistance). Show all your work below.
V total
Resistance of the light bulb: Rtotal (measured)= =
I total
8. The light bulbs are connected in series.
When resistors are in series, total resistance R eq = R1 + R2 + R3

Calculate the total resistance. Rtotal (calculated) = ___________

Does RTotal in Step 7 equal RTotal in Step 8?

Question 1-15: Do you notice any pattern in the currents through the light bulbs connected in
series? Explain.

Question 1-16: Do you notice any pattern in the voltages across the light bulbs connected in
series?
Question 1-17: Is there any relationship between the voltages across each light bulb and its
resistance? Explain.

Question 1-18: Is there any relationship between the battery voltage and the voltages across the
light bulbs? Explain.

9. Put a 4th bulb in series with the other bulbs. R4 = _____________ 

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Question 1-19: Do the bulbs seem to burn as bright as before?

Activity 1-7: Resistors Connected in Parallel

10. Now build the circuit shown below using three light bulbs, battery, and some wires.

R1 = 10 Ω, R2 = 20 Ω, and R3 = 30 Ω

11. Click on the battery and set the battery voltage to 12 volts.

12. Use the ammeter to measure the current through each of the light bulbs (by placing the ammeter
on wire either before or after the light bulb. Write down the values of these currents below.

I1 = ________

I2 = _________

I3 = _________

13. Now measure the total current flowing from the battery by placing the ammeter next to the
battery.
Itotal (from the battery) =______
__
14. Use the voltmeter to measure the across each of the light bulbs. Write down the values of these
voltages below.

V1 = ________

V2 = _________

V3 = _________

Question 1-20: Do you notice any pattern in the voltages across the light bulbs connected in
parallel?

Question 1-21: Do you notice any pattern in the currents through the light bulbs connected in
parallel?

Question 1-22: Is there any relationship between current through each light bulb and its
resistance? Explain.

Question 1-23: Is there any relationship between the total current flowing from the battery and
the currents through the light bulbs? Explain.

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15. Use the Ohm’s law V =IR to calculate the resistance of the light bulb (assuming that the wires are
of negligible resistance). Show all your work below.
V total
Calculate the total resistance: Rtotal (measured )= =
I total
16. These light bulbs are connected in parallel.
When resistors are connected in parallel, total resistance for any number of resistors connected in
parallel is given by:
1 1 1 1
= + + +⋯
R total R1 R 2 R 3

Calculate the total resistance. Rtotal (calculated) = ___________

Does RTotal in Step 15 equal RTotal in Step 16?

17. Remove one light bulb and calculate the total resistance: R total = _________

18. Remove a second light bulb; there should now only be one bulb in the circuit.
Calculate the total resistance: Rtotal = _________

19. From Steps 16, 17, and 18, you should be able to reach a conclusion about the resistance in a
parallel circuit: As the number of branches increases, the total resistance in a parallel circuit
____________________.

20. Put a 4th bulb in parallel with the others. Connect the bulbs to the batteries. Do the bulbs seem to
glow as brightly as before?

R4 = _____________ 

Analysis: Complete the following sentences:

Resistors in Series Circuits:

1. The total resistance is equal to

2. The sum of the voltage drops across the individual bulbs is equal to

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3. When you put a 4th bulb in the circuit, do you think the current in the circuit increased, decreased,
or stayed the same?

4. Complete the following: As the current in the circuit ___________, the brightness of the bulbs
____________.

Parallel Circuits:

5. As you add more branches, the total resistance

6. As you add more branches, does the voltage across each branch increase, decrease, or stay the
same?

7. As you add more branches, does the current across a previously existing branch increase,
decrease, or stay the same?

8. If you were to decrease the number of branches to just one branch, how would the brightness of
the bulb now compare the brightness when there were three bulbs in parallel?