INVESTIGATORY

PROJECT ON MOVING
COIL GALVANOMETER

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 Submitted by:
Name: Jayant
Arora Class: XII-A
Roll no. :

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 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project entitled “Report on
Moving Coil Galvanometer” is the bona fide work of him
submitted to SALWAN PUBLIC SCHOOL, SEC 15(II)
GURUGRAM for consideration in partial fulfillment of
the requirement of CBSE, Delhi. For the award of Senior
School Certificate in Science.

The original research work was carried out by him under

my supervision in the academic year 2017-2018. On the
basis of the declaration made by him I recommend
report for evaluation.

_______________ _______________
Examiner’s Signature Teacher’s Signature

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to

my teacher Mr. Pankaj Gupta as well as our principal
Mrs. Rashmi Malik. Who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic
“Report on Moving Coil Galvanometer”, which also
helped me in doing a lot of Research and I Came to
know about so many thing I am really thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my parents
and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame

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 Index
S.no. Title PAGE No.
1. Certificate 2
2. Acknowledgement 3
3. Index 4
4 Introduction 5
5 Principle and 6-7
Construction
6 Theory 8-9
7 Advantages and 10
Disadvantages
8 Sensitivity and Accuracy 11-13
9 Bibliography 14

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 Introduction
A galvanometer is an electromechanical instrument for detecting and
indicating electric current. A galvanometer works as an actuator, by
producing a rotary deflection (of a "pointer"), in response to electric
current flowing through a coil in a constant magnetic field. Early
galvanometers were not calibrated, but their later developments were
used as measuring instruments, called ammeters, to measure the current
flowing through an electric circuit.

Galvanometers developed from the observation that the needle of a

magnetic compass is deflected near a wire that has electric current flowing
through it, first described by Hans Oersted in 1820. They were the first
instruments used to detect and measure small amounts of electric
currents. André-Marie Ampère, who gave mathematical expression to
Ørsted's discovery and named the instrument after the Italian electricity
researcher Luigi Galvani, who in 1791 discovered the principle of the frog
galvanoscope – that electric current would make the legs of a dead frog
jerk.

Sensitive galvanometers have been essential for the development of

science and technology in many fields. For example, they enabled
long range communication through submarine cables, such as the
earliest Transatlantic telegraph cables, and were essential to
discovering the electrical activity of the heart and brain, by their fine
measurements of current.

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 Principle
When a current carrying coil is suspended in a uniform
magnetic field it is acted upon by a torque. Under the
action of this torque, the coil rotates and the deflection in
the coil in a moving coil galvanometer is directly
proportional to the current flowing through the coil.

Construction

The suspended type consists of a rectangular coil of thin insulated copper wires
having a large number of turns.
The coil is suspended between the poles of a powerful horseshoe magnet by a
suspension fibre of phosphor-bronze. A spring is attached to the other end of the
coil. The current enters the coil through the fibre and leaves the coil through
the spring.

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 The upper end of the suspension fiber is connected to a rotating screw head so
that the plane of the coil can be adjusted in any desired position.
The horseshoe magnet has cylindrically concave pole-pieces. Due to this shape,
the magnet produces radial magnetic field so that when coil rotates in any
position its plane is always parallel to the direction of magnetic field. When
current flows through the coil it gets deflected.

A soft iron cylinder is fixed inside the coil such that the coil can rotate freely
between the poles and around the cylinder. Due to the high permittivity, the soft
iron core increases the strength of the radial magnetic field.
A small plane mirror M is fixed to the suspension fibre. This along with lamp
and scale arrangement is used to measure the deflection of the coil.

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 Theory
Consider a rectangular coil PQRS of single turn having length ‘l’ and breadth
‘b’ suspended in a uniform magnetic field of induction B such that the plane of
the coil is parallel to the magnetic field. Let ‘I’ be the current through the coil.

 The sides PS and QR being parallel to the magnetic field do not experience
any force, but the sides PQ and RS being perpendicular to the magnetic
field experience force. The force experienced by each side is given by
F=BIl
 By Fleming’s left-hand rule these forces are opposite in direction. As these
two forces are equal and opposite they form what is called as a couple
and due to which a torque acts on the coil which tries to deflect the
coil.
The deflection torque is given by,
Torque = Force x Perpendicular distance between the forces.

τ=Fxb

∴τ=BIl×b

But l τ b = A, the area of the coil

∴τ=BIA

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 If the coil has ‘n’ turns, then the deflecting torque is given by

∴ τ = n BIA

 Under the action of this torque, the plane of the coil rotates through an
angle θ before coming to rest. Due to the radial magnetic field, the plane
of the coil is always parallel to the direction of magnetic field. Thus at any
position, the deflecting torque has constant magnitude. The rotation of
the coil produces a twist in the fibre which produces a restoring torque
which is
directly proportional to the angle of deflection θ.

τ𝖺θ

∴τ=kθ

Where k is the torque per unit twist (or torsional constant) of the suspension
fiber.
 When the coil comes to rest i.e. when it attains equilibrium, the
restoring torque will balance the deflecting torque. So in equilibrium
position of the
coil,
Deflecting torque = Restoring torque.

nBIA=kθ

The quantities in bracket are constant, therefore

∴I𝖺q

Thus in a moving coil galvanometer current in the coil is directly proportional

to the angle of deflection of the coil.

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 Advantages and
Disadvantages

Advantages of Moving Coil Galvanometers:

 They are not affected by strong magnetic field.
 They have the high torque to weight ratio.
 They are very accurate and reliable.
 Their scales are uniform.

Disadvantages of Moving Coil Galvanometers:

 The change in temperature causes a change in restoring torque.
 Restoring torque cannot be easily changed.
 There is a possibility of damage to the phosphor bronze fiber or helical
restoring spring due to severe stresses.
 Such instruments can only be used for measurement of direct current
quantities and cannot be used for measurement of alternating
current
quantities.

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Sensitivity and Accuracy of
a Galvanometer
Sensitivity of Moving Coil Galvanometer:
 The sensitivity of moving coil galvanometer is defined as the ratio of
the change in deflection of the galvanometer to the change in the
current.
Sensitivity = dθ / di

 A galvanometer is said to be sensitive if it gives larger deflection for a small

current.

The current in moving coil galvanometer is given by

 Thus the sensitivity of moving coil galvanometer can be increased by

o Increasing the number turns (n) of the coil,
o Increasing the area (A) of the coil,
o increasing the magnetic induction (B) and
o Decreasing the couple per unit twist (k) of the suspension fiber.

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Limitations to Increase in Sensitivity of Moving Coil
Galvanometer:
 If the turns of the coil are increased the length of wire and hence the
resistance of the coil increases.
 Increasing the area of the coil beyond limit makes the instrument bulky.
 Increase in the number of turns and area of the coil increases the load on
suspension fiber. Hence spring higher value of k should be used which
decreases the sensitivity of the galvanometer.
 Increasing the strength of magnetic induction leads to increase in the
weight of the apparatus.
 Decreasing the couple per unit twist of the spring leads to decrease in the
strength of the spring.

Accuracy of Moving Coil Galvanometer:

 The relative error in the measurement of current is given by
di/i For moving coil galvanometer, the current through it is given

by

 Thus the error in the measurement of current depends only on

the measurement of the deflection in the galvanometer dθ.

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 For greater accuracy of the galvanometer, the ratio di / i should be
small. It is small when the deflection is large. Thus for greater
accuracy, the deflection in the galvanometer should be large for small
current in it.
 As the expression of accuracy does not contain the terms n, A, B and k the
accuracy is independent of the number of turns of the coil, the area of
the
coil, the magnetic induction and constant for the spring.

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 Bibliography

www.google.com/images
www.wikipedia.com
www.hemantmore.org.in
www.brainkart.com

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