EEE 1 Lab: Experiment 2

DC Circuits

BATAC, Jun Kristoffer J. 2013-09489

BUENSUCESO, Maria Crispina B. 2014-06338

1. How must the voltmeter in Part D be constructed to minimize loading

effect? Discuss the trade-offs and relationships involved. You may
implement this newly devised voltmeter to verify your claims.
A low resistance voltmeter may give accurate reading when measuring voltage in
low resistance circuit but the voltmeter produces inaccurate reading when
connected in high resistance circuit. This is because, as the resistance of
voltmeter is less when compared to the circuit resistance, this will act as a
stalling path for the current and therefore the voltage drop across the resistor
where we want to measure the voltage will be less. To minimize the loading
effect, the voltmeter should be connected in parallel to the circuit being measured
and the resistance of the potentiometer should be increased. The device has a
maximum resistance of 20 kilo-ohms; therefore, the minimization technique can
only be done up to this extent.

2. Determine the current in each of the loops using mesh analysis. Show your
complete solutions.

Mesh Measured Current Theoretical Current

using Mesh Analysis

1 1.22 mA 1.566 mA

2 1.78 mA 1.762 mA

3 0.730 mA 0.735 mA

Computations:

Mesh 1: 5100(I 1−I 2)+1200(I 1−I 3)=0

 Mesh 2: 5100(I 2−I 1)+3900(I 2−I 3)=5
Mesh 3: 6800(I 3 )+3900 ( I 3 −I 1 )+ 1200( I 3 −I 1 )=0

I1 = 1.566 mA I2 = 1.762 mA I3 = 0.735 mA

3. Are the measured results similar to your theoretical computation? What are
the non-ideal situations that were (not) taken into account in your analysis?
Yes, the results are similar to the theoretical computation; however the difference
in mesh 1 is 22%, while those of meshes 2 and 3 are 1.02% and 0.680%,
respectively. The relatively larger discrepancy in mesh 1 can be attributed to the
errors done in measurement reading and perhaps procedural errors, especially
since it was the first current to be measured. The group also assumed ideality,
and therefore did not take into account internal resistance.

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the superposition

principle when measuring?
As the superposition principle provides the total current in a circuit, it is
advantageous because it provides a standard/basis for the circuit’s analysis. It is
applicable for the elements of the whole circuit, as well as the sources.
Furthermore, the circuit can be converted into both its Thevenin equivalent and
Norton equivalent.

As for its disadvantages, it is not possible to calculate power using the principle
of superposition because of its linearity. This theorem can also only be applied to
circuits with more than one source.

Computations

Table I. KVL Analysis

Measured Voltage Theoretical Voltage

R1 2.2V 2.82V

R2 7.8V 9.18V

12V = i(R1 + R2 ) = i(1.2K + 3.9K)

i = 2.352x10-3 A
V1 = iR1 = 2.82V
 V2 = iR2 = 9.18V

Table II. Current Values (KCL)

Theoretical
Current based on
Measured Voltage Current using
measured voltage
KCL

R1 3.3V 3.17 mA 3.59 mA

R2 7.2V 1.85 mA 2.04 mA

R3 7.2V 1.41 mA 1.56 mA

R4 12V 1.76 mA 6.34 mA

Simplifying the circuit to get R T = 2838.188494 Ω and getting the current across the
voltage source to be Isource = 4.22804x10-3 A.

At Node A (between voltage source, R1 and R4:

V V
Isource = I1 + I4 = +
R 1 R4
V = 4.312609971V
V
I1 = =3.59384 x 10−3 A
R1
V
I4 = =6.34207 x 10−4 A
R4

At Node B (between R1, R2 and R3):

U U
I1 = I2 + I3 = +
R 2 R3
U = 7.94239V
U
I2 = =2.0365 x 10−3 A
R2
V
I3 = =1.55733 x 10−3 A
R3

Table IV. Current Values (Superposition)

Measured Current from Current from Sum of E Theoretical
current E F and F Current using
Superposition
R3 1.7 mA 1.41 mA 2.2 mA 1.63 mA 2.295 mA
Theoretical current was obtained by adding the theoretical current in the mesh analysis
table and table II.

Note: Original question 3 is not answered (Determine the current across R3 using
Thevenin…) for that part of the experiment was not yet done.