Tasheika Richards 6AS

EXPERIMENT: 4

SKILL: Planning and Designing

TOPIC: IV characteristics/ Resistance

AIM: To determine the IV characteristics of filament lamp

HYPOTHESIS: The resistance of the filament lamp will increase as the voltage increases and as
more current flows through the lamp the temperature of the filament will also increases

APPARATUS AND MATERIALS: Filament lamp, Power supply, ammeter and voltmeter,
connecting wire or leads, variable resistor.
DIAGRAM:

Title: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE FILAMENT BULB IN PARALLEL ACROSS THE

VOLTMETER AND THE VARIABLE RESISTOR IN PARALLEL WITH THE
FILAMENT LAMP AND THE AMMETER IN SERIES WITH THE
FILAMENT LAMP

VARIABLES:

DEPENDENT VARIABLE:

The temperature of the filament lamp for different potential difference. The units for
temperature will be Kelvins
The voltage that depends on the increasing resistance
Current of the filament

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE:
 Tasheika Richards 6AS

The resistance of the power supply

CONTROL:

Length of lead
Power supply

METHOD:
1. Ensure that you have your equipments properly checked before taking readings.
2. Using the apparatus above, connect the power supply or battery to the variable resistor on

the left or the right using a lead or connecting wire.

3. Connect it to the middle of the variable resistor and the filament lamp. If you add the

leads on both ends (right and left) of the variable resistor, there will not be any changes in

the resistance which will then result in no change in the current.

4. Connect the component (filament lamp) to the ammeter using three more leads then from

the ammeter to the power supply and then from the component to the voltmeter.

5. Ensure the variable resistor is adjusted so that the potential difference is zeroed before

starting to take readings.

6. Record the readings on the voltmeter and ammeter.

7. Use the variable resistor to increase the potential difference starting from 1.0V

8. Using the voltmeter and ammeter record the new readings.

9. Repeat steps 7-8, each time increasing the potential difference slightly using a 0.2
interval which would be 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6.
10. Turn around the leads in the power supply to reverse the power supply connections and
repeat steps 6-10 but decrease the potential difference. This means that current is flowing
in the opposite direction through the circuit.
11. Ensure both the voltmeter and ammeter has negative values and both the ammeter and

voltmeter has positive values

 Tasheika Richards 6AS

12. Make observation and record the potential difference and its corresponding current in the

table below.

13. Plot a graph of current against potential difference.

14. Ensure to turn off power supply when not in use to prevent harm.

EXPECTED RESULTS:

The more energy that is put into the bulb, the harder it is for the current to flow – the resistance
of the bulb increases. As the voltage increases, so does the temperature of the thin wire inside the
bulb which is the filament. The atoms will vibrate rapidly about their mean positions, thus the
movement of the electrons through the filament lamp becomes restricted, and thus the resistance
of the lamp increases.When current flows through the filament lamp , it gets hot because the electrons
in the current flowing through the components collides with the particles that makes up it up. The
current through the lamp is directly proportional to the potential difference due to the filament getting
hot which resulted in an increase resistance . The movement of the electrons throughout the filament
lamp is being restricted thus the resistance of the filament increases as a result of the atoms vibrating
rapidly. The atoms in the filament vibrate or collide more in high temperature. It is also

expected that the readings obtained in the table to plot the graph will show that the graph (which
will be a t-shaped graph) has a slight curve towards both ends of the graph, both positive and
negative end. This shows that resistances is in constant for the filament lamp and that it doesn’t
obeys ohm’s law. The graph flattens slightly at the end as a result of the potential difference
increasing across the filament lamp.

TREATMENT OF RESULTS:

Title: Table showing potential difference, V (volts) and current, I (amperes) obtained
Potential difference, V (Volts) Current, I (amperes)
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
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5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0

PRECAUTIONS:

Ensure while connecting the circuit the power supply are turned off at start.
Make sure that the current is not too high, which will cause the filament bulb to blow up and
that is not safe working.

LIMITATIONS:

fluctuating ammeter or voltmeter readings that could alter the results

Experimenter’s error the variables were not read properly

ASSUMPTIONS:

Resistance of the lamp increases as the voltage increases. So more current flows through the
lamp, the temperature of the filament lamp will increase.
The increased vibrations of the ions in the filament will cause the temperature to increase
making it harder for the electrons to get pass