College of Arts and Sciences

Mathematics, Statistics and Physics Department

Physics Program
Experimental Physics II for Engineering
PHYS 194
Session: L02 - CRN: 10271
Fall 2016

Ohm’s Law
Student’s Name: Abdulah Youssef Jarouf Student’s ID: 201506738

Partner’s Name: Abdullah Thabit Alyafei Partner’s ID: 201307354

Partner’s Name: Hassan Ali Al Muhsin Partner’s ID: 201306879

Lab Instructor: Huda Fadol ALyafei

Date Performed: OCT 3rd, 2016

Date Submitted: OCT 10th, 2016

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Objectives:
a. Verifying Ohm’s law and applying it on different resistors connected in a circuit.
b. Perfectly connecting the circuit elements (parallel & series).
c. Knowing the best of connecting the voltmeter and the ammeter.
Introduction:
First of all, ohm’s law relates the potential difference between the two terminals of a
resistance (conductor) to the current passing through it as follows:
V =RI
Where V is the potential difference between the two terminals of an element in a circuit
and its unit is V (volt), and R is the resistance of the conductor and its unit is  (ohm), and I is
the current passing through an elements and its unit is A (ampere).
In our experiment we had a certain resistances and we were able to control the voltage
and measure the current produced from the power supply. Consequently we could check the
value of the resistance we had by applying Ohm’s law. From the equation, however, if we plot
the x and y axis we will get the experimental value of the resistor we used.
Experimental Apparatus and Procedure:
Firstly, in this experiment we used four main components which:
1. Power supply.
2. Two Multimeter.
3. Two Resistors (10 & 5.2 ohm).
4. Wires.

Secondly, the experiment consists of four main parts:

1. Connecting a circuit using one resistor.
2. Connecting two resistors on series.
3. Testing the real value of the second resistor.
4. Connecting two resistors on parallel.
Steps:
a. We connected the power supply to the ammeter and the resistor and closed the circuit,
then we connected the voltmeter parallel to the resistor unlike the ammeter. Next we were
ready to record our readings.

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 b. We connected the second resistor directly to the multimeter to
record the real value of the resistor.
c. We connected cut our circuit and connected the second
resistor next to the first one on series and the voltmeter
parallel to both of them.

d. We recut out circuit and connect the second resistor and the voltmeter
parallel to the first one.
Note: in the 3 circuits we did not change the position of the
ammeter and kept it connected on series to all of the
components.
Experiment Data:
Part one:
Voltage V ±0.01 (v, volts) Current I ±0.01 (A, ampere)

2.00 0.20
3.00 0.30
4.00 0.40
5.00 0.50
6.00 0.60
Part two:
The real value of the second resistor is 5.2 ± 0.01.
Part three:
Voltage V ±0.01 (v, volts) Current I ±0.01 (A, ampere)

2.00 0.13
3.00 0.20
4.00 0.27
5.00 0.33
6.00 0.40
Part four:
Voltage V ±0.01 (v, volts) Current I ±0.01 (A, ampere)

2.00 0.61
3.00 0.92
4.00 1.23
5.00 1.53
6.00 1.85

Graphs:

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 PART 1
7

6
f(x) = 10 x
VOLTS (v) 5 R² = 1

0
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65

CURRENT (A)

*linest function: (part 1)

SLOPE 10 -8.88178E-16 INTERCEPT
ERROR SLOPE 1.4E-15 5.95808E-16 ERROR INTERCEPT
2
R 1 4.44089E-16 ERORR BAR

PART 3
7

6
f(x) = 14.92 x + 0.03
5 R² = 1
VOLTS (v)

0
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45

CURRENT (A)

*linest function: (part 3)

SLOPE 14.91541 0.032502 INTERCEPT
ERROR SLOPE 0.222618 0.062863 ERROR INTERCEPT
2
R 0.999332 0.047182 ERORR BAR

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 PART 4
7

6
f(x) = 3.25 x
VOLTS (v) 5 R² = 1

0
0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.8

CURRENT (A)

*linest function: (part 4)

SLOPE 3.236009 0.026181 INTERCEPT
ERROR SLOPE 0.015997 0.020851 ERROR INTERCEPT
2
R 0.999927 0.015632 ERORR BAR

Calculations and analysis:

Part one: in this part we used one resistor only and we now know I & V, therefor from
ohm’s law we now that V= RI, so when we plotted the graph of V vs I the slope was RTotal. from
the Linest function we got the value of the slope = 10 which is the experimental value of the
resistor used. The error in the value of the slope is also calculated from the Linest function which
equals to 1.4×10-15.
Part three:
a. Now in this part, we used two resistors and measured I passing through them and V
between their two terminals. After getting our readings of I & V we plotted the
relationship between them and now ohm’s law means V= Rexp Series I. Therefore the
slope of the graph in part three equals to the total resistance Rexp Series which is
14.91541 and the error in its value is ±0.222618.
b. Rth Series = R1 + R2.
R1 = 10, R2 = 5.2  Rth Series = 10 + 5.2 = 15.2 (1)
2 2
∆ R Series = √ ( ∆ R 1 ) + ( ∆ R 2 ) = 0.22
th ❑
(2)
c. Comparing the theoretical and experimental values of Rseries =
% error = 1.97%
2 Rth −Rexpmntl
d. x = ¿ 2 ¿<3
th 2 expmntl
( ∆ R ) +〖 R ¿¿

 = 2.9 <3 therefore R and Rexpmntl are very close to be equal since chi-square is less
th

than 3.

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 Part four:
a. This case is similar to the pervious Part, but here R represents the total parallel
resistance RParallel. So the slop in the third graph represent the experimental value of
the equivalent resistance RexpParallel which is equal to 3.23 and its error is ±0.015997
R1R2
b. RthParallel = = 3.42
R 1+ R 2

To get the error in the theoretical value I will let R1R2 = A and R1+R2 = B, now I know
that if y = A/B then (∆y/y)2 = (∆A/A)2 + (∆B/B)2 , from (1) & (2) I know ∆B = 0.015
A= R1R2 ∆A/A= √(∆R1/R1)2 + (∆R2/R2)2 = 0.022
(∆y/y)2 = (∆A/A)2 + (∆B/B)2 = 0.0152 + 0.222 = 7.13 ×10-4
∆y = y ×√ans = 0.091
c. Comparing the theoretical and experimental values of RParallel =
% error = 5.55%
2 Rth −Rexpmntl
d. x = ¿ 2 ¿<3
th 2 expmntl
( ∆ R ) +〖 R ¿¿
= 11.7 >3 which means that the theoretical and experimental values of Parallel are not
equal. But since the two values we got are very close to each other so there might be
some errors in our experiment or calculations. For instance: maybe I have
underestimated the errors of the values or not rounded to the best significant figures,
or there I have followed a wrong way of calculating the answer. However the source
of the error not always the calculations, sometimes it is systematic error from the
instrument we used.
Conclusion:
The results obtained from the experiment were as expected, and agrees with Ohm’s law.
By looking to the graphs, the relationship between voltage and current is linear, and directly
proportional so that whenever voltage or current increases, the second one also increases as given in
the law V = IR. Moreover, the experiment shows that when resistors are connected in series, the
resulting resistance is larger than any individual resistance in the circuit, while connecting them in
parallel results in a total resistance smaller than any single resistance in the circuit, which was as
expected.

Questions:
1. On series, the total resistance is a combination of the two resistors together. If the two
resistors are connected on series, then it means that the same current will pass through of
them so they resist the same current consequently. Looking at the charges in this current,
we see that each charge will pass through the two resistors. Why we combine the two
resistors, which is reasonable.
2. On the other hand, if the two resistors are on parallel, the effect of the total resistor will
be less than the smaller one. The reason is because each charge is passing through one
resistor only, which means it will have a small effect on the current.

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References:
a. PHYS 194 Manual, p18, p26-29.
b. Error propagation file
c. Fundamentals of electric circuit, 5th edition, Charles k. Alexander, chapter 2.

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