Resistance of a Wire
Introduction
The resistance of a wire depends on certain factors. Some of these variables are listed below:
Length of wire
Diameter or thickness of wire
Temperature at which wire is kept
The material of which wire is made out of.
The potential difference or voltage.
Humidity
Cross sectional area.
Voltage across circuit
All these factors will have to be kept constant except the diameter of the wire whilst doing the experiment to ensure that the investigation is a fair test.
I have decided to investigate how the diameter of a wire affects its resistance because other factors such as temperature are hard to control or vary. There is not a large enough range of materials to investigate how materials affect the resistance of a wire. The way in which the diameter of a wire affects the resistance is an efficient experiment to do. A graph can be plotted easily, there is a large range of results and the results can be recorded easily.
Variables
The investigation is to investigate the resistance when the diameter has changed. In order for the investigation to be a fair test, all other factors or variables should be kept constant. The investigation has to be done in a fair manor otherwise the results would be inaccurate and the conclusion would be incorrect. The variables, which must be kept constant, are:
1) Temperature when the temperature of a metal increases the resistance of that metal increases. This is because when the temperature increases the atoms of the metal vibrate more vigorously because of the increase in energy. This means that the electrons have more difficulty getting through the wire as they collide with the atoms, which are in their pathway. This increases the amount of collisions therefore there is more resistance. However it is hard to keep the temperature exactly the same as the room temperature might change from day to day. It is essential to use a low voltage because it means a low current that will not heat
The resistance of a wire depends on certain factors. Some of these variables are listed below:
Length of wire
Diameter or thickness of wire
Temperature at which wire is kept
The material of which wire is made out of.
The potential difference or voltage.
Humidity
Cross sectional area.
Voltage across circuit
All these factors will have to be kept constant except the diameter of the wire whilst doing the experiment to ensure that the investigation is a fair test.
I have decided to investigate how the diameter of a wire affects its resistance because other factors such as temperature are hard to control or vary. There is not a large enough range of materials to investigate how materials affect the resistance of a wire. The way in which the diameter of a wire affects the resistance is an efficient experiment to do. A graph can be plotted easily, there is a large range of results and the results can be recorded easily.
Variables
The investigation is to investigate the resistance when the diameter has changed. In order for the investigation to be a fair test, all other factors or variables should be kept constant. The investigation has to be done in a fair manor otherwise the results would be inaccurate and the conclusion would be incorrect. The variables, which must be kept constant, are:
1) Temperature when the temperature of a metal increases the resistance of that metal increases. This is because when the temperature increases the atoms of the metal vibrate more vigorously because of the increase in energy. This means that the electrons have more difficulty getting through the wire as they collide with the atoms, which are in their pathway. This increases the amount of collisions therefore there is more resistance. However it is hard to keep the temperature exactly the same as the room temperature might change from day to day. It is essential to use a low voltage because it means a low current that will not heat