Expt.No.

4
Date:

Resistance and Figure of Merit of a Galvanometer

Aim:

To determine the resistance of a galvanometer by half deflection method and to find its figure of merit.

Apparatus Required:

✓ A Weston type galvanometer

✓ A battery or battery eliminator
✓ High Resistance Box
✓ Low Resistance Box
✓ Two one-way keys
✓ Connecting wires

Theory:
The resistance of a galvanometer G is given by,

Where, R – the high resistance in series with galvanometer

S – the shunt resistance
The figure of merit of the galvanometer is given by,

Where, E – the emf of the cell used

ϴ – the deflection produced in the galvanometer
G – the resistance of a galvanometer
Procedure

• Arrange the components on a table and connect them as per the circuit diagram.
• Make sure that plugs of the resistance boxes are tight.
• Take out a high resistance from the resistance box 1 and insert the key k1.
• Adjust the resistance from this resistance box to get maximum galvanometer deflection.
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 • Note the deflection and record it as θ in the tabular column.
• Insert the key k2 also, without changing the value on the resistance box.
• Now, adjust the resistance from the low resistance box such that galvanometer shows deflection which is
exactly half of the previous reading.
• Record the value of low resistance .
• We can repeat the experiment by changing the value of high resistance R and adjusting low resistance S.
• The resistance of the given galvanometer can be calculated each time by using the relation G= RS/(R-S).
• We can find the figure of merit of the galvanometer by using the equation, k= E/(R+G)θ.

Sourcs of Error

Precautions

Result:
The resistance of the given galvanometer, G =——— Ω
The figure of merit of the given galvanometer, k =———- Amp / div.

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Observations

1) For finding ‘G’, resistance of the galvanometer

Trial.no Resistance Deflection Shunt resistance Half deflection
S (Ω)
R(Ω) (θ) ( θ/2)

(Ω)
1
2
3
4
5
6

2) For finding ‘K’, figure of merit.

Calculations

For G

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1 2 3

4 5 6

For k

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3

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