1. What should be the resistance of an ideal (i) voltmeter, and (ii) ammeter?

Ans. (i) Ideal voltmeter : Infinity, (ii) Ideal ammeter : Zero

2. How will you convert a moving coil galvanometer into (i) a ammeter (ii) a voltameter?
Ans. (i) By connecting a low resistance of suitable value i.e., a shunt across the terminals of the galva-
nometer. (ii) By connecting a high resistance in series with the galvanometer.
3. Can you measure e.m.f. of a cell with a voltmeter?
Ans. No, because it requires some current from the cell for its reading.
4. What is a voltmeter? Why is it always connected in parallel in a circuit?
Ans. It is a moving coil galvanometer with a high resistance in series. It measures potential drop across
two points without changing its magnitude when it is connected in parallel.
5. On what factors does the e.m.f. of the a cell depend?
Ans. (1) Nature of plates, (2) Nature of electrolyte, (3) Composition of the electrolyte,
(4) It is independent of the separation between the plates, and (5) Area of the plates immersed in
the electrolyte.
6. What is ammeter? Why is it always connected in series in a circuit?
Ans. It is essentially a shunted moving coil galvanometer. It has a very low resistance and measures the
current though a circuit without modifying its magnetic only when it is connected in series.
7. What is the approximate thickness and length of the wire for infinite resistance in the
resistances box?
Ans. There is no resistance wire below the infinity plug. When the infinity plug is taken out, the two studs
remain unconnected and no current flows across. So there is infinite resistance.
8. What is the effect of temperature on the resistance of a conductor?
Ans. The resistance of a conductor increases with the rise of temperature.
9. Name some substances whose resistance decreases with the rise of temperature
Ans. Resistance of carbon and semiconductors, germanium and silicon decreases with rise of tempera-
ture. Variation is more or less exponential.
10. Which material is suitable for the construction of standard resistances for resistance
boxes etc.?
Ans. The two common materials used for this purpose are:
(i) Constantan, and (ii) Manganin.
11. Why is copper not used?
Ans. Actually the material suitable for the construction of standard resistances should have
(i) high specific resistance, and
(ii) low temperature coefficient of resistance, i.e., its resistance should not change appreciably
with the rise of temperature. Manganin and constantan satisfy these two conditions, whereas cop-
per does not.
12. What is the composition of manganin and constantan?
Ans. Manganin (Cu 83%, Mn 13% and Ni 4%); Constantan (Cu 60%, Ni 40%)
13. For making a standard resistance, why should the material possess high specific resis-
tance?
Ans. So that even a small length of the wire is enough.
14. Why is a material named Eureka also sometimes used for this purpose?
Ans. Eureka is nothing but another name of constantan.
15. Why is the meter bridge suitable for resistances of moderate values only?
Ans. The bridge becomes intensities for too high or too low values and the readings become unde-
pendable. When determining low resistances, the end resistances of the metre bridge wire and
resistance of connecting wires contribute towards the major part of error.
16. What is the alternative term used for metre bridge?
Ans. Slide wire bridge.
17. When is the Wheatstone’s bridge said to be most sensitive?

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Ans. When resistances in all the four arms P, Q, R and S are of nearly the same order of magnitude.
18. What will happen in if the positions of the cell and galvanometer are interchanged in a
meter bridge experiment?
Ans. The balance point is not affected on interchanging the positions of the cell and galvanometer a such
arms BD and AC are called conjugate arms.
19. Why should the current would be passed only while taking an observation
Ans. A continuous flow of current would cause heating and hence an increase in the values of resis-
tances.
20. Why should the moving contact of jockey not be pressed too hard or scratched along the
wire?
Ans. If done so, it may damage the uniformity of the bridge wire.
21. For determination of resistance of a coil, which of two methods is better ohm’s Law
method or metre bridge method?
Ans. Obviously, the bridge method is better because it is the null point method which is superior to all
other methods.
22. Why should the bridge wire be of uniform cross-section throughout?
Ans. If it is not so, the resistance per unit length of the wire would vary from position to position and the
P R l
relation relation at balance condition, i.e.,   would no longer be valid.
Q S (100  l )
23. Some times it is advisable to shunt the galvanometer while trying for a balance point
why?
Ans. During the first trial of the balance, the current that passes through the galvanometer may be large
and may damage it. Therefore, to protect the galvanometer, a shunt is used. When the balance
point reaches near the null position, shunt is removed and exact null position located.
24. Why is it necessary to obtain the balance point in the middle of the bridge wire? Explain
in detail.
Ans. The sensitivity of the Wheatstone’s bridge is maximum when the resistance of all its four arms are
nearly of the same order. For this, the null point or the balance point should be near the middle of
the wire, It can be shown (proof given below) that when the balance point is in the middle of the
wire, a small error in determining its position introduces the least error in the value of the unknown
resistance, i.e., the accuracy of the result is the highest.
25. If the same experiment is performed with a meter bridge wire of length 50 cm in place of
1 metre long, what changes do you expect in the result?
l
Ans. It will introduce more error in the final result. Permissible error in length measurement is
l
where  l is the least count of the metre scale which remains the same. When ‘l’ decreases
l
  increases, hence percentage error increases.
 l 
26. The radius of a bridge wire increases uniformly, how will its resistance very as you move
along the length?
Ans. Resistance will not increase linearly with length. As area of cross-section increases, it will cause
decrease in resistance. Therefore, increase will not be uniform rather as we move along the wire,
rate of increase of resistance will be less.
27. What is the purpose of rheostat in the main circuit?
Ans. The rheostat can be adjusted so that the null point is obtained on the last segment of the potentiom-
eter wire.
28. If two potentiometer wires have different values of potential gradient, which one will be
more sensitive?

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Ans. The one with smaller value of potential gradient.
29. If the galvanometer does not show any deflection on pressing the jockey, where does the
fault lie?
Ans. (1) Either the cell under observation for internal resistance is completely discharged; or
(2) there is a break somewhere in the galvanometer circuit.
30. If you get the deflection only in one direction in both the above trials, what inference
should you draw from this?
Ans. It may be due to two reasons:
(i) Either the positive terminals of all the cells are not connected to the same end of the
wire;
(ii) The total potential drop across the wire is less than the e.m.f. to be measured.
31. If the pointer of the galvanometer flickers, what can be the reason?
Ans. (1) The cell or the auxiliary battery (eliminator) or both give flickering potential.
(2) There is a loose connection somewhere in the circuit.
32. Does the position of balance at null point mean no current though the potentiometer?
Ans. No, the current always flows through the potentiometer wire. No current from the cell is only in an
open circuit.
33. How does the conductivity of semi-conductors very with temperature?
Ans. The conductivity (  ) of semi - conductors increases with the rise of temperature. It shows expo-
nential behaviour with temperature.
(   0 exp ( E g / kT ) where E g is the energy gap and T the absolute temperature.

1 1
34. Can you determine the focal length of a convex mirror by plotting versus .
 u
Ans. No, since a convex mirror does not form a real image,  cannot determined on an optical bench.
35. Why is it advised to use a small - aperture mirror for experiments?
Ans. It is because the image formed may not suffer from various aberrations or defects.
36. What do you understand by paraxial and marginal rays?
Ans. (i) The rays which are parallel or subtend a very small angles with the principle axis (so that sin
   ), are called paraxial rays.
(ii) the rays is which subtend large angles with the principal axis are called marginal rays.
37. Which method is more accurate in the determination f for concave mirror. (i) u vs.  , or
1 1
(ii) vs. graphs?
u 
1 1
Ans. vs. method, because the graph in this case is a straight line, whereas u vs.  graph is a
 u
curve.
38. How is spherical aberration minimised while experimenting with mirrors or lenses?
Ans. By using only a small central portion (i.e., small aperture) of the mirrors of lenses.
39. Is the power of a lens going to change if it is dipped in water?
Ans. The focal length of a lens changes with the change in refractive index of the surrounding medium.
Hence, the focal length of the lens is different in water than in air. It is more in water. So the power
of the lens decreases while going from air to water.
40. How is index error removed?
Ans. When the quantum of the index error is added to the observed distance, the actual distance is
achieved. This is done as follows:
Index correction = (index error). Index correction, whether positive or negative, is always added
algebraically to the observed distance to get the correct distance.
41. What is parallax?

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Ans. The apparent shift in the position of the two objects when the observer’s eye is moved sideways,
is called parallax
42. How is parallax removed?
Ans. Parallax is removed by shifting the upright (holding the second needle called as image needle)
suitable le on the optical bench to such position where the relative shift between the image of the
object needle and the image needle completely disappears on moving the eye sideways
43. What is meant by index error?
Ans. Index error is also called bench error. It arises if the index marks on the uprights of the optical
bench are not correctly positioned. As a result, the actual distance between the centre of the lens
and the tip of the needle is not the same as the distance measured on the bench scale between the
index marks of the corresponding uprights. Index error is compound as follows:
Index error = Observed distance - actual distance.
44. Focal length of a given lens is f v for violet colour and f r for red colour. Which one is
larger?
Ans. Since  of the lens material is greater for violet than for red colour, the lens is more refracting for
violet than red. So f r  f v
45. How does  change with change in colour, i.e., the value of  ?
Ans  decreases with increase in  and vica versa.
46. Is there any speciality about the minimum deviation position of the prism?
Ans. Yes. in this position the ray of light passes through the prism symmetrically, i.e., parallel to the base
and angle i = angle e.
47. Does the angle of minimum deviation Dm depend upon the colour of light?
Ans. Yes, since the deviation for different colours are different so the values of Dm are also different for
different colours.
For a prism of small angle (A), the angle of devation D  (   1) A. As  varies with  D also
varies with  .
48. How is a bridge reactifier advantageous over a full wave reactifier?
Ans. In a bridge reactifier, four diodes are used but a centre tap transformer is not needed, whereas a
centre tap transformer is a must for full wave reactifier.
49. If Zener effect common in all semi-conducting diodes or only in Zener diodes?
Ans. Zener effect is common in all semi-conducting diodes but breakdown voltage is very sharp (say
within a range of 0.05 to 0.10 V) in case of Zener diodes.
50. What is the direction of arrow on the emitter in case of n-p-n transistor?
Ans. Majority carriers in n-p-n device are electrons from the emitter to base, so the conventional flow
of current is from the base to the emitter. Therefore, the narrow points from base to emitter.
51. What is the order of thickness of base region and why is it do?
Ans. It is of the order of 10 microns and is so thin that it allows recombination of only 1 to 5 per cent of
charge carriers in the base region.