Graduate

School

CARL ANDRIE D. ORTEGA, MAEd-Physics

Intensive Laboratory in Physics

LEARNER’S MATERIAL

I VIRTUALLY LAB OHM’S LAW!!!

Virtual laboratory on Ohm’s Law and the three most important electrical quantities
current, voltage, and resistance.
Introduction
Georg Simon Ohm found the essential link between the three important electrical
numbers current, voltage, and resistance. To honor his contribution to physics, the
relationship and the unit of electrical resistance were both named after him. One
statement of Ohm’s Law is that the current through a resistor is proportional to the voltage
across the resistor and inversely.

Learning Outcomes
After doing the simulation, you must have:
• determine the mathematical relationship between current, potential difference, and
resistance in a simple circuit; and
• examine the potential vs. current behavior of a resistor and current vs. resistance
for a fixed potential.
Materials:
• computer
• PhET Simulation
• Logger Pro, from Vernier Software

Preliminary Setup and Questions

1. Open a new tab in your browser. Go to
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/ohms-law to start the PhET Simulation.
Select "Run Now" from the drop-down menu. The screen shown in Figure 1 should
appear. Minimize your browser.
 2. Open the Logger Pro. Download and extract the contents of the following zip file
in the link
http://tlaphysicsportfolio.weebly.com/uploads/6/1/5/8/61582483/ohms_law_phet.z
ip. Use Logger Pro to open the file. A graph of potential vs. current will be
displayed. Minimize Logger Pro and switch back to the PhET ohms law simulation.

3. Move the potential slider while keeping the Resistance slider at its default value to
see what changes happens to the current.
If the voltage doubles, what happens to the current?
•
What type of relationship do you believe exists between voltage and current?
•
4. Move the resistance slider while the Voltage slider is set at 4.5 V to see what
happens to the current.
If the resistance doubles, what happens to the current?
•
What type of relationship do you believe exists between current and
resistance?
•

Procedure
1. Adjust the Resistance slider to 300 ohms, then adjust the Voltage slider to the
values in data table 1, noting the resulting electric currents.
Data Table 1
Resistance R = Click here to enter. Ohms
Current (mA) Potential Current (mA) Potential
1.5 6.0
3.0 7.5
4.5 9.0
Slope of graph = _____V/mA
Slope times 1000 = _____Ω
 Switch to Logger Pro and minimize your internet browser. Under Data Set 1, enter
the data from Table 1. Apply a "linear fit" to the data. The following is an example
graph:

Record the slope of the graph below data table 1. Calculate the resistance value
by taking the slope of the graph times 1000.
2. Return to the PhET Simulation now. Set the Resistance slider to 600 ohms, then
adjust the Voltage slider to the values in data table 2, record the corresponding
electric currents.
Data Table 2
Resistance R = Click here to enter. Ohms
Current Potential Current Potential
(mA) (mA)
1.5 6.0
3.0 7.5
4.5 9.0
Slope of graph = ______V/mA
Slope times 1000 = ______Ω

Switch to Logger Pro and minimize your internet browser. Under Data Set 2, enter
the data from Table 2. Apply a "linear fit" to the data. Take note of the graph's slope
in data table 2. Take the slope of the graph and multiply it by 1000 to get the
resistance value.

Paste the resulting graphs for both data sets with fits showing:
 Does a linear function work well with both data sets of V vs I data?

3. Return to the PhET simulation. Set the Voltage Slider to 4.5 V once more. The
Resistor will now be set to the values in the table using the Resistance slider. Fill
in the following information in table 3:

Data Table 3
Electric Potential DV = Click here to enter Volts
R (ohms) Current R (ohms) Current
(mA) (mA)
100 600
200 700
300 800
400 900
500 1000
Inverse Fit Constant of graph of I vs R = ________ΩmA
Inverse Fit Constant divided by 1000 = _________V

Switch to Logger Pro. Go to the second page of the display. Data from Data Table 3
should be entered into Data Set 3. Perform a "Inverse" fit on the data using "Curve Fit."
Below Data Table 3, write down the Inverse Fit Constant.
Calculate the voltage value by taking the Inverse Fit Constant and dividing by 1000.

Paste the resulting graph for Data Set 3 with the fit showing:

Does an inverse function provide a good fit to your data?

ANALYSIS
Is it true that the electric current in a resistor is directly proportional to the electric
potential provided by the batteries, based on the experimental data?
•

Does the experimental data show that at a certain electric potential, the electric
current is inversely proportional to the resistance?
•

CONCLUSION

Cite an application of Ohm’s Law

•
Teacher’s Guide

I VIRTUALLY LAB OHM’S LAW!!!

Virtual laboratory on Ohm’s Law and the three most important electrical quantities
current, voltage, and resistance.
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/legacy/ohms-law
Learning Competency: Infer the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance.
S8FE-Ih-30
Learning Outcomes
After doing the simulation, you must have:
• determine the mathematical relationship between current, potential difference, and
resistance in a simple circuit; and
• examine the potential vs. current behavior of a resistor and current vs. resistance
for a fixed potential.
Materials:
• computer
• PhET Simulation
• Logger Pro, from Vernier Software

Preliminary Setup and Questions

1. Open a new tab in your browser. Go to
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/ohms-law to start the PhET Simulation.
Select "Run Now" from the drop-down menu. The screen shown in Figure 1 should
appear. Minimize your browser.

2. Open the Logger Pro. Download and extract the contents of the following zip file
in the link
http://tlaphysicsportfolio.weebly.com/uploads/6/1/5/8/61582483/ohms_law_phet.z
ip. Use Logger Pro to open the file. A graph of potential vs. current will be
displayed. Minimize Logger Pro and switch back to the PhET ohms law simulation.

3. Move the potential slider while keeping the Resistance slider at its default value to
see what changes happens to the current.
 If the voltage doubles, what happens to the current?
• When the voltage doubles, the current doubles as well. They appear to be
connected.
What type of relationship do you believe exists between voltage and current?
• Voltage is directly proportional to current since when voltage increases, the
current also increases and vice-versa.
4. Move the resistance slider while the Voltage slider is set at 4.5 V to see what
happens to the current.
If the resistance doubles, what happens to the current?
• The current is divided by two when the resistance doubles. They appear to
be connected as well.
What type of relationship do you believe exists between current and
resistance?
• The relationship between current and resistance is inversely proportional
because when resistance increases, the current decreases and when
resistance decreases, the current increases.

Procedure
1. Adjust the Resistance slider to 300 ohms, then adjust the Voltage slider to the
values in data table 1, noting the resulting electric currents.
Data Table 1
Resistance R = 300 Ohms
Current (mA) Potential Current (mA) Potential
5.0 1.5 20.0 6.0
10.0 3.0 25.0 7.5
15.0 4.5 30.0 9.0
Slope of graph = 0.3V/mA
Slope times 1000 = 300Ω
Switch to Logger Pro and minimize your internet browser. Under Data Set 1, enter
the data from Table 1. Apply a "linear fit" to the data. The following is an example
graph:
 Record the slope of the graph below data table 1. Calculate the resistance value
by taking the slope of the graph times 1000.
2. Return to the PhET Simulation now. Set the Resistance slider to 600 ohms, then
adjust the Voltage slider to the values in data table 2, record the corresponding
electric currents.
Data Table 2
Resistance R = 600 Ohms
Current Potential Current Potential
(mA) (mA)
2.5 1.5 10.0 6.0
5.0 3.0 12.5 7.5
7.5 4.5 15.0 9.0
Slope of graph = 0.6V/mA
Slope times 1000 = 600Ω

Switch to Logger Pro and minimize your internet browser. Under Data Set 2, enter
the data from Table 2. Apply a "linear fit" to the data. Take note of the graph's slope
in data table 2. Take the slope of the graph and multiply it by 1000 to get the
resistance value.

Paste the resulting graphs for both data sets with fits showing:

Does a linear function work well with both data sets of V vs I data? Yes.

3. Return to the PhET simulation. Set the Voltage Slider to 4.5 V once more. The
Resistor will now be set to the values in the table using the Resistance slider. Fill
in the following information in table 3:
 Data Table 3
Electric Potential DV = 4.5 Volts
R (ohms) Current R (ohms) Current
(mA) (mA)
100 45.0 600 7.5
200 22.5 700 6.4
300 15.0 800 5.6
400 11.3 900 5.0
500 9.0 1000 4.5
Inverse Fit Constant of graph of I vs R = 4500ΩmA
Inverse Fit Constant divided by 1000 = 4.5V

Switch to Logger Pro. Go to the second page of the display. Data from Data Table 3
should be entered into Data Set 3. Perform a "Inverse" fit on the data using "Curve Fit."
Below Data Table 3, write down the Inverse Fit Constant.
Calculate the voltage value by taking the Inverse Fit Constant and dividing by 1000.

Paste the resulting graph for Data Set 3 with the fit showing:

Does an inverse function provide a good fit to your data? Yes.

ANALYSIS
Is it true that the electric current in a resistor is directly proportional to the electric
potential provided by the batteries, based on the experimental data?
• Yes, it is true. When graphed, we could easily see that there is a direct
relationship between current and electric potential, thanks to the constant
slope.
Does the experimental data show that at a certain electric potential, the electric
current is inversely proportional to the resistance?
• Yes, it is shown in the experimental data. When graphed, we could easily
see that there is an inverse relationship between current and resistance,
thanks to the exponential decay we observe in the slope.
CONCLUSION
After conducting this experiment, I feel I understand Ohm's Law quite clearly, and how
current, resistance, and voltage (aka electric potential) are related.
This relationship comes in a few forms, depending on which value we're solving for:
Current: I=V/R
Voltage: V=I⋅R
Resistance: R=V/I

Cite an application of Ohm’s Law

• Ohm’s law helps us in determining either voltage, current or impedance or
resistance of a linear electric circuit when the other two quantities are known
to us. It also makes power calculation simpler.

Concepts
• Ohm's law, description of the relationship between current, voltage, and
resistance. The amount of steady current through a large number of
materials is directly proportional to the potential difference, or voltage,
across the materials.
• The formula for Ohm’s law is V=IR. This relationship between current,
voltage, and relationship was discovered by German scientist Georg Simon
Ohm.
• Ohm’s Law Formula
Voltage= Current× Resistance
V= I×R
V= voltage, I= current and R= resistance

• The SI unit of resistance is ohms and is denoted by Ω

• This law is one of the most basic laws of electricity. It helps to calculate the
power, efficiency, current, voltage, and resistance of an element of an
electrical circuit.
• Applications of Ohm’s Law
Ohm’s law helps us in determining either voltage, current or impedance or
resistance of a linear electric circuit when the other two quantities are known
to us. It also makes power calculation simpler.