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Ohmic Vs NonOhmic Devices

This lab experiment investigates whether carbon resistors and light bulbs obey Ohm's Law. Students will: 1) Measure the voltage and current across two carbon resistors in a circuit as the battery voltage is increased from 1V to 10V in 1V increments. They will plot current vs. voltage and determine each resistor's resistance. 2) Replace one resistor with a light bulb and measure voltage and current across the bulb from 1V to 30V. They will plot current vs. voltage to see if the bulb's behavior deviates from Ohm's Law.

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65 views2 pages

Ohmic Vs NonOhmic Devices

This lab experiment investigates whether carbon resistors and light bulbs obey Ohm's Law. Students will: 1) Measure the voltage and current across two carbon resistors in a circuit as the battery voltage is increased from 1V to 10V in 1V increments. They will plot current vs. voltage and determine each resistor's resistance. 2) Replace one resistor with a light bulb and measure voltage and current across the bulb from 1V to 30V. They will plot current vs. voltage to see if the bulb's behavior deviates from Ohm's Law.

Uploaded by

Binod
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lab 6: Physics 121 Ohmic versus Non-Ohmic Devices

Introduction
Carbon resistors are the kind typically used in wiring circuits. They are made from a small cylinder of graphite,
surrounded by a protective plastic coating. (See fig. 1a.) Short wires, or leads, are attached to the ends of the
graphite cylinder and held in place by the coating. [You have two carbon resistors at your station.] Other
materials and devices can also act like resistors; a light bulb filament, for example, usually consists of a thin
tungsten wire with its two ends connected to separate parts of the metal base. (See fig. 1b.) Like most (but not all)
solid materials, graphite and tungsten are ohmic, which means that resistors made from them obey Ohm’s Law,
V = IR .

Fig. 1a Fig. 1b

Ohm’s law applies to each resistor in a circuit – even a complicated circuit with many resistors. V in the formula
is the voltage difference between the two ends of any one of one of the resistors, I is the current through that same
resistor; and R is the resistance of that resistor. The unit for resistance is the Ohm, abbreviated by a Greek omega,
Ω ; 1Ω = 1V / 1A . Carbon resistors typically range from about 10 Ω to about 10M Ω =107 Ω .

Since Ohm’s Law says that V and I are proportional, one might expect that a graph of V (vertical axis) vs. I
(horizontal axis) will be a straight line through the origin with slope equal to the resistance R. In some cases,
however, such a graph will not be straight. One possible reason is that larger currents tend to heat up a resistor,
and for most materials a change in temperature causes a change in resistance. This temperature-dependence of
resistance appears as a changing slope in a V vs. I graph.

Resistors
To investigate whether carbon resistors obey Ohm’s law, wire the circuit shown in figure 2 below.
Set a potential of 1V for the battery. Measure the potential drop across the resistor (in V) and the current thought
the resistor (in A) as measured by the two meters in the circuit.
In increments of 1V repeat this set of measurements until you reach 10V on the battery.
Measure the resistance of the resistor you used using one of the meters on your table.
Make a plot of the current through the resistor versus the potential drop across the resistor for each of the resistors
that you have. Put the data all on the same graph. Determine the resistance of each resistor.
Light Bulb
To see potential deviations from Ohm’s law, wire the circuit shown in figure 3 below and choose the 220Ω
resistor.

Set a potential of 1V for the battery. Measure the potential drop across the light bulb (in V) and the current
thought the light bulb (in A) as measured by the two meters in the circuit.

In increments of your choice repeat this set of measurements until you reach 30V. Do get at least 12
measurements and the higher the potential difference set the better.

Fig. 3

Plot the current though the light bulb as a function of the potential difference across the light bulb.

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