Names:

CAPIO, KENT ICER D.

ZURBANO, JOSHUA E.
ALAN , DJOJEMAR
PALAS, JOHN HARVEY B.
ROSALES, RHONWELL
AGUILA, JANELLE

Date Performed: Section:

Teacher:

In this lab you are using PhET Circuit Construction Simulation:

https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual
lab/latest/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab_en.html

Introduction

Ohm’s Law is a mathematical relationship between voltage, current and

resistance in an electrical circuit.

Ohm’s Law: V = I x R

Here V, is for voltage measured in volts (V), I, is for current measured in amperes
(A) and R, is for resistance measured in Ohms (Ω).

Part I – Exploring Ohm’s Law using constant voltage.

Procedure

1. Click on url below to open simulation page if you have not already done so.
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual
lab/latest/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab_en.html
 2. Click and drag circuit components from sides of simulation screen to get them
into work area. To measure current flowing through a circuit (and all its
components) an ammeter must be placed in the circuit, meaning current
flowing through circuit must pass through ammeter also (see Fig. 1 below).
To measure voltage supplied to a circuit component, voltmeter must be
connected across the component (see Fig. 1 below).

3. Construct on your simulation screen simple series circuit as shown in Figure 1

below. Click on resistor to change resistance value to a low number between
3 ohms to 5 ohms for this first run of your experiment.
Figure 1: Circuit (i) for exploring Ohm’s Law

4. Select from onscreen to show ’Values’ and any other display

combination you prefer. Keep wire resistivity tiny. Keep battery resistance at
zero.

5. Click on ‘Switch’ to close. Record in Table 1. Below, values for current in

circuit as shown on ammeter and voltage across resistor as shown on
voltmeter.

Table 1: Resistance I and Current (I) Measurements

Serial Resistance (R measured in Ω) Current (I measured in A)

1 3.3 Ω 2.73 A

2 4.5 Ω 2.00 A

3 5.2 Ω 1.73 A

4 6.0 Ω 1.50 A

5 7.0 Ω 1.29 A

6 8.1 Ω 1.11 A

7 9.0 Ω 1.00 A

8 10.0 Ω 0.90 A

6. Open switch and change resistance of resistor. Close switch and record
values. Repeat for seven to eight data points the procedure of changing
resistor’s resistance value and recording in Table 1 above, resistance and
current values after switch are closed.
7. Did you observe that as you increased the value of the resistance in your
circuit your recorded current value was changing? Did your circuit current
increase or decrease in value as you increased circuit resistance?
 Yes, the circuit value is changing as the resistance value is
increasing. As the value of the resistor’s resistance is
increasing, the current’s value is also decreasing, as such the
resistance and current are inversely proportional to each
other.
8. Plot a graph of resistance R on your Y – axis versus current I, on your X –
axis.
9. Graph should look like this after you have done your best fit:
 RESISTANCE-CURRENT
RELATIONSHIP
3

2.5

2
current

1.5

0.5

0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

RESISTANCE

Part II – Series and Parallel Circuits

A – Resistors in series
1. Use the circuit diagram in formation in Figure 3 below to guide you on how to
construct your series circuit and how to connect your voltmeter to measure
voltage across each resistor.

Figure 3: Schematic of series circuits showing voltmeter connection

2. Reset simulation screen by clicking on orange button in lower right corner of

screen.
3. Let resistor 1, have resistance such that: 2.0 Ω < R1 < 12.0 Ω and resistor 2
have resistance such that: 20.0 Ω < R2 < 100.0 Ω. Click and drag circuit
components to construct a series circuit as in Fig. 3 schematic. Your series
circuit will be like Figure 4, simulation screenshot seen below.
 Figure 4: Simulation series circuit

4. Record your battery voltage. Record all other data in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Series Circuit Data
Resistor Resistance. Voltage across Current through. Battery
voltage,
VBattery

R1 8.8 Ω VR1 = 1.42 V 0.16 A 9.0 V

R2 47.0 Ω VR2 = 7.58 V 0.16 A 9.0 V

R 1 + R2 55.8 Ω VR1 + R2 = 9.0 V 0.16 A 9.0 V

5. Is VBattery the same as VR1 + R2? Why is this happening?

 Yes, the voltage of the battery is same as the combined voltage of
VR1 + R2. It is because the total voltage of a series circuit is equal to
the voltage 1 and voltage 2, its just that the total voltage of the
battery is divided by the 2 resistors. And we can get the value of
each voltage by mathematically expressing it as V=I/R.
 6. Replace your resistors in this series circuit by two light bulbs. Turn on the
switch. Observe what happens. Are the light bulbs brightly lit? Why?
 Yes, but the bright of the light depends on the resistance of the
bulb. As such, as the resistance increases the bright of each bulb
also increase. It is also because the higher the resistance also means
the higher the voltage of an individual bulb possess.

B - Resistors in parallel.
Resistors in parallel have the same battery voltage across each resistor in the circuit.
This is unlike resistors in series. Additionally, each resistor in a parallel circuit
configuration has its unique value of current passing through it. The sum of the
currents passing through branch of a parallel circuit is equal to the total current
flowing through the circuit.

Figure 5: Schematic for voltage measure across resistors in parallel

Figure 6: Current flow in resistors in parallel

1. Construct your resistors (R1 ≠ R2) in parallel circuit in your simulation. 2.

 Record data for resistors in parallel circuit in Table 3 below.
Table 3: Resistors in parallel Circuit Data
Resistor Resistance, Ω Voltage across, V Current through, A Battery
voltage,
VBattery

R1 12.0 Ω VR1 = 10 V 0.83 A 10.0 V

R2 44.0 Ω VR2 = 10 V 0.26 A 10.0 V

R 1 + R2 9.43 Ω VR1 + R2 = 10 V 1.06 A 10.0 V

3. Use your data to validate the following relationships:

Resistors in series – RTotal = R1 + 2 = R1 + R2

Resistors in parallel – 1/RTotal = 1/R1+2 = 1/R1 + 1/R2

For resistors in parallel, same as: RTotal = R1+2 = (R1 + R2)/(R1R2)

4. Replace your resistors in parallel in your simulation by two light bulbs. Turn on
the switch and observe the light bulbs. Are they brightly lit? Why?

 Yes, they’re brightly lit, but the other bulb is not that bright
like the bulb who has low resistance. I believe that the reason
why the other bulb is so bright is because it has lower
resistance than the other bulb that has 44 ohms in it.

5. Which circuit configuration do you think is widely use in homes, offices and
industrial systems? Why?

 Parallel circuit connection. One of the reasons is because every

circuit will have the same voltage making the bulb much
brighter . Also, because it much reliable so that even if one of
the circuits broke the other circuit will still continue to work
since their current is not the only circuit connected to the
 battery not like a like the series one.

OHM’S LAW

SERIES CIRCUIT
PARALLEL CIRCUIT