E U R O I N T E R N AT I O N A L S C H O O L

CLASS XI-A

P H Y S I C S I N V E S T I G AT O R Y
PROJECT

R AJ U M AN DA L
NON-MEDICAL

PHYSICS TEACHER: MS. NEHA

Euro International School, Sector 45
Physics Investigatory Project

Certificate
This is to certify that RAJU MANDAL, a student of class XI-
A has successfully completed the research on the below
mentioned project under the guidance of Ms. Neha
(Physics Teacher).

Teacher’s Signature

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 ACKNOWLEDGEM
ENT
I would like to express my special thanks to my teacher

as well as our principal who gave me the golden

opportunity to do this wonderful project in PHYSICS,

which also helped me in doing a lot of Research. I came

to know about many new things.

This project couldn’t have been satisfactorily completed

without the support and guidance of MY parents.

I would like to thank my parents who helped me in

gathering diverse information, collecting data and

guiding me from time to time in making this project,

despite their busy schedule. They gave me different ideas

in making this project unique.

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 Index
1 Certificate of Excellence

2 Acknowledgement

3 Aim of project

4 Introduction

5 Theory

6 Apparatus required

7 Procedure followed

8 Observation

9 Conclusions

10 Precautions

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11 Bibliography

Aim of Project
The aim of the project is to demonstrate the underlying

principles of electrical conduction under the influence of

light. Various applications are possible by employing this

simple principle such as (A) Automatic switching of

street lamps, (b) Intruder’s alarm, (c) Morning wake up

alarm, (d) Fire alarm, (e) Light intensity meters, (f)

Automatic elevator doors etc. to name a few.

In this project, I have demonstrated the intruder’s alarm

in a simple manner which is easy to understand. The

heart of the project is an LDR or Light Dependent

Resistor. This project could have been done using a

photo-voltaic cell in place of LDR but the circuit would

have become complicated in the case of photocell.

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 Introduction
A photoresistor or light-dependent resistor(LDR) is a

light-controlled variable resistor. The resistance of a

photoresistor decreases with increasing incident light

intensity; in other words, it exhibits Photoconductivity.

A photoresistor can be applied in light-sensitive detector

circuits, and light and dark activated switching circuits.

These resistors use pure semiconductors like silicon or

germanium. When the light falls on the LDR, then the

electrons get excited by the incident photons and move

from the valence band to the conduction band and

therefore the number of charge carriers increases. In

other words, the conductivity goes up.

Distinction needs to be made here between photocells

and LDRs. In a photocell, when it is excited by light

(photons), electricity is generated. Unlike photocells,

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LDRs, do not generate electricity but only change their

conductivity.

Theory
Alight dependent resistor works on the principle of photo

conductivity. Photo conductivity is an electro-optical

phenomenon in which the material’s conductivity is

increased when light is absorbed by the material. Modern

light dependent resistors are made of materials such as

lead sulphide, lead selenide, indium antimonide and most

commonly cadmium sulphide (CdS) and cadmium

selenide.

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When light falls i.e. when the photons fall on the

material, the electrons in the valence band of the

semiconductor material are excited to the conduction

band. These photons in the incident light should have

energy greater than the band gap of the semiconductor

material to make the electrons jump from the valence

band to the conduction band. Hence when light having

enough energy strikes on the device, more and more

electrons are excited to the conduction band which

results in large number of

charge carriers. The result

of this process is more and

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more current starts flowing through the device when the

circuit is closed and hence it is said that the resistance of

the device has been decreased. This is the most common

working principle of LDR.

This can be clearly seen from the graph. The resistance of

the LDR falls rapidly with the increasing intensity of the

incident light.

The converse is also true when light intensity is reduced

or cut off.

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 APPARATUS
REQUIRED
The project consists of the following apparatus:

1. Light source (white, ultra-violet and laser)

2. LDR

3. Switching circuit

4. Relay

5. Buzzer

6. Batteries

7. Housing for the above

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 Procedure followed
An empty cardboard box was used to mimic a house. An

opening was cut on the box to present a door. Behind

the door, a light source is placed and in the line of vision

of the light source, an LDR is also placed.

A circuit is connected to the LDR which switches on a

relay when the light beam is intercepted. A schematic

diagram of the set-up is shown below:

BUZZER
INTERRUPTION

RELAY Light

LIGHT BEAM

TRANSISTOR CIRCUIT LIGHT SOURCE

HOUSE
DOOR
As seen in the above diagram, a light source is positioned

behind the door on the right hand side and an LDR is

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placed in the same line of vision at the opposite end of

the door. When the light beam falls on the LDR, it lowers

the resistance of the same and this activates the

switching transistor circuit. The transistor circuit

(described later) is connected to a relay which is in turn

connected to an external buzzer.

The relay is a special type of switch which is driven by its

magnetic coil. The relay has two positions. In de-

energized condition, position-1 will be active and in

energized condition, position-2 will be active.

When the circuit is powered, the relay goes to position-1

to which the buzzer is connected. Thus, the buzzer will

start ringing. But when the light source is switched on,

the resistance of LDR falls and this drives the transistor

switching circuit and the relay gets energized. This puts

the relay switch in position-2, which cuts off the buzzer.

In this condition, whenever the light beam is intercepted

by an opaque object, the LDR stops receiving the incident

light and its resistance becomes high. This de-energizes

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the relay and puts it to position-1 and the buzzer starts

ringing.

Thus, to summarize, we can say that the as long as the

light source is on and the LDR is illuminated, the buzzer

will not ring. But the moment, the light source is

interrupted, the buzzer will start ringing.

We can Imagine the interruption of the light beam to be

caused by an intruder and hence this arrangement can

automatically detect any intruder by turning on the

buzzer.

The buzzer is just one of the devices we have connected

to the relay. As such we can connect many devices to the

relay such as sirens, flashing lights or even an automatic

dialer to the nearest police station. This intruder alarm

can be easily set up in houses, banks, schools etc.

The same circuit can be rewired to reverse the effect of

light. Viz. we can make the buzzer ring whenever, light is

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present and interestingly this set up can be used as a

morning alarm.

Circuit Diagram

Now, let us understand how the switching takes place

when the LDR is illuminated by light. For the automatic

switching, we have used the following circuit consisting of

Transistors. One of the most common uses for transistors

in an electronic circuit is as simple switches. In short, a

transistor conducts

current across the

collector-emitter

path only when

sufficient voltage is

applied to its base.

When no sufficient

base voltage is present, the switch is off. When sufficient

base voltage is present, the switch is on.

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The circuit uses two transistors, connected in series. The

base voltage of the first transistor is adjusted carefully

through the variable resistor (potentiometer) so that the

slightest increase in the base voltage can fire the

transistor T1. Thus, when there is no light on the LDR,

the transistor remains un-fired. But when light falls on

the LDR, the LDR starts conducting and the net base

voltage of transistor T1 crosses the threshold voltage,

causing T1 to fire. As a consequence, the collector

current of T1 drives transistor T2 and T2 begins to fire.

The collector current of T2 is now large enough to

energize the relay. The relay gets energized and changes

the contact position from 1 to 2. When light is cut off,

the base voltage of T1 falls back to less than the

threshold voltage of its base –emitter junction and

therefore, the relay gets de-energized.

As stated earlier, the relay is connected to a buzzer

through a battery. So, whenever, light is interrupted, the

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relay goes to position-1 where, the buzzer is connected

and the buzzer starts ringing.

The ringing buzzer wards off the intruder and also alerts

the neighbors about the intrusion. In addition to the

buzzer, one can also connect a high intensity flash light

to warn the people in the neighborhood about the

intrusion.

Needless to say, one has also to install a stealth switch

that is known only to the owner so that the owner can

disable it for his own entry.

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 Observation
In the set up described, the following observations were

made by (a) varying the nature of light source, (b)

varying the translucency of the interceptor object.

Table of observations

S. No Type of Light Material of Result

Source Interceptor
1 White light Opaque Buzzer Rings
Transparent Buzzer does
not ring.
2 Near ultra- Opaque Buzzer Rings
violet Transparent Buzzer does
not ring.
3 Low intensity Opaque Buzzer Rings
red laser Transparent Buzzer does
not ring.

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Extension of scope in future

The device was also tested under invisible light using a

TV remote control as an infrared light source. The same

observations were made as above. This extends the scope

of the project to the invisible light sources such as

ultraviolet and infrared. The advantage is that; we can

dupe the intruder by using invisible light as the light rays

will not be visible even in the night.

Another interesting application that can be thought of is

an automatic ‘people counter’ that can be used to

measure the number of people traversing a certain

passage or entrance in an auditorium or theatre. It can

also be used as a ‘traffic counter’ in check posts and toll

gates. For this, we have to simply

replace the buzzer with a digital

counter. A typical digital counter

is shown in the accompanying

picture.

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 Conclusion
Based on the observation above, it can be concluded that

the LDR based electronic switch can be successfully

deployed for the following applications:

1. Intruder detection / burglar’s alarm for home uses.

2. Anti-theft alarm for Banks and offices.

3. People Counter at Auditoriums

4. Vehicle counter at traffic check posts.

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 Precautions
The project uses certain devices that can be harmful to

humans and animals if proper caution and care are not

observed.

1. Laser diode: Although we have used a low intensity

laser, this can be harmful if aimed accidently at the
eyes or if the reflected beam is seen through naked
eye. It is suggested to wear protective sun-glasses
while assembling / positioning the light source.

2. Ultraviolet LED: UV LED with wavelengths between

315 and 400 nm, which emits the least energetic
and harmful type of UV light. However, prolonged
exposure should be avoided which can damage the
skin and eyes.

3. Buzzer: This device emits high frequency audio

sounds that can damage the ears when put close to
the ears or heard for prolonged period.

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4. The LDR: Should a need arise to destroy the project;
care should be taken to dispose off the LDR properly
as it contains harmful chemicals that can damage
the environment.

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 Bibliography
Help from The
Internet

sds

Help from
Parents

1. www.google.com

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/

3. www.electrical4u.com

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