RESISTORS
1 Pauline sets up the below circuit in order to investigate the electrical behaviour of a
filament bulb. She wants to plot a graph of current against potential difference for the
bulb.
(a) One more component must be added to the circuit to enable her to plot a
graph of current against voltage for the bulb. Add this component (using the
appropriate circuit symbol) to the appropriate location in the diagram.
(2)
(b) Identify component X in the above circuit diagram.
(1)
Component X: .........................................................
(c) Describe the steps which Pauline should follow to collect the data which she
will need in order to plot a current-voltage graph for the bulb.
(3)
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(d) When the p.d. across the bulb is 2 V, the current flowing through it is 1 A.
When the p.d. is 10 V, the current is 2 A.
Calculate the resistance of the bulb at each of these p.d. values.
(2)
Resistance at 2 V = .................... W
Resistance at 10 V = .................... W
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RESISTORS
(e) Pauline plots the below graph from her experimental results.
Current (A)
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
Potential
0.0
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
difference (V)
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
On seeing the graph, Frank says that the bulb “clearly exhibits ohmic
behaviour”. Do you agree with his statement? Explain your answer.
(2)
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(f) Explain the shape of the above graph for the filament bulb. Why does the
current through the bulb depend on the p.d. across it in this way?
(3)
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RESISTORS
2 The below graph shows the current-voltage characteristics of two different fixed
resistors.
0.8
Resistor 1
0.6
Current (A)
0.4 Resistor 2
0.2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Potential difference (V)
(a) Calculate the resistance of both resistors.
(4)
Resistor 1 = .................... W
Resistor 2 = .................... W
(b) Both resistors may be described as being ohmic.
Explain the meaning of this statement.
(3)
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RESISTORS
3 The current-voltage graph for an electrical component is displayed below.
Current (A)
0.15
0.1
0.05
0 Potential difference (V)
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
(a) What is the name of this component?
(1)
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(b) Draw a circuit diagram which could be used to obtain the data which was used
to plot the above graph.
(3)
(c) Describe a suitable method for collecting the current-voltage data from which
the above graph was plotted.
(3)
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