Physics 4BL

Lab 2: AC and DC Circuits

Alex Gunning 003-880 February 8, 2012 TA: Louis Yang Lab Partner: Alexander Mar

I.

Introduction:

In this lab we are trying to analyze alternating and direct currents. In order to do this we analyze different circuit set ups. We run the tests with the different cirucuits to confirm physics equations. In the first phase of the lab we examine the application of Ohms law with DC on a circuit. We expect to see that the voltage drop at a resistor to be constant. The current and the voltage have a linear relationship as Ohms Law is V=IR. We do not see a perfect linear relationship because of such factors as temperature. The initial phase of the lab will demonstrate how different factors can change the final data. In the second phase of the lab we replace the DC source with an AC source. In this phase of the lab change up how we use resistors, conductors, and capacitors in series and parallel to examine the effect of AC current. Through the analysis of the first two parts

II.

Experimental Results Week 1 DC circuits

Part I: Verification of Ohms Law

Experimental Results:
In this first part of the lab, the relationship between voltage V, current I, and resistance R, which are all elements of Ohms Law V = IR, are explored. Values of Resistance Measured R 985 Measured r 104 Obtained R 909 Table 1: Resistance values Table 1 has measured R value which is calculated from Ohms Law, r measured from the multimeter, and the Obtained R is calculated from the inverse of the slope of the graph of voltage vs. current.

Current vs Voltage
0.015 Current (Amps) 0.01 0.005 0 0 -0.005 -0.01 -0.015 Voltage (v) 10 20 CH[0] (R) Linear (CH[0] (R)) y = 0.0011x + 2E-06

-10

Figure 1: Graph of the recorded voltage VR (CH0) vs. the current through the circuit (calculated through Ohms Law).

Analysis:
As we can see from the picture it shows a fairly linear relationship. The linear regression line represents the Conductance which is the inverse of the Resistance. If we look at the data we can see that while not perfectly linear it is pretty close. The inverse of 0.0011 is 909 which represents the resistance. We expected resistance to be closer to 985 but 909 is still close.

Part II: Deviation from Ohms Law

Experimental Results:
For the second phase of the lab, we use a diode in a circuit. The important part of the diode is that it only sends current in one direction. We try to examine how the diode works. We replace the resistor from the first part with a diode. The next graphs will show the voltage-current relationship.

Voltage vs. Current with Diode

6.00E-01 5.00E-01 4.00E-01 Current (Amps) 3.00E-01 2.00E-01 1.00E-01 0.00E+00 -1.20E+01 -1.00E+01 -8.00E+00 -6.00E+00 -4.00E+00 -2.00E+00 0.00E+00 Voltage of Diode (Volts) -1.00E-01

2.00E+00

Figure 2: Graph of the calculated current over the recorded voltages.

Part III: Resistors in Series and Parallel Experimental Results: Resistance (Ohms) 103.5 98.9 202 50.6

R1 R2 (R1+R2) Series (R1+R2) Parallel

Table 2: Recorded resistance values for resistors in different connections.

Calculated Rseries = R1+R2 = 201.6 Calculated RParallel= (1/R1 + 1/R2)-1 = 50.12 Analysis: Table 2 has recorded values of the resistors and the total resistance when they are arranged in series and in parallel. The equation for total resistance of series and parallel are included under the calculations. The recorded and calculated results are practically identical which validates the two equations for resistors in circuits. Part IV: Conductivity of Copper Mass (g) Resistance at 20 oC Resistance at -196 oC 254.7 10.1 1.4

Table 3: The recorded temperature and its respective resistance of the copper coil. r = 0.02667cm m = 8.920 g/cm S = r2 = .00223cm2 M/mS = L = 12950cm RS/L o = 1.74E-6 t = 2.41E-7 A = (t - o)/(T - To) = 6.93E-9

Week 2 AC circuits
Part I: RC Circuits

Experimental Results:
R () 991 C (F) 0.000001

In this part of the experiment a resistor and capacitor circuit is examined under transient conditions. The voltage difference between RC and the time constant right after t0 are observed

Voltage vs Time RC Circuit

3.00E+00 2.00E+00 1.00E+00 Voltae (volts) 0.00E+00 0.00E+00 1.00E-02 2.00E-02 3.00E-02 4.00E-02 5.00E-02 6.00E-02 7.00E-02 8.00E-02 -1.00E+00 -2.00E+00 -3.00E+00 -4.00E+00 Time (s)

The blue line represents the input voltage, while the red represents the capacitor voltage. Figure 3: This is raw collected data of voltage graphed over time. From this we can clearly see the voltage is controlled by the AC, because of the many humps in the graph. Part II: RLC Circuits The final phase of the lab requires us to build an RLC circuit which consists of a resistor, a capacitor, and an inductor in series. We are then required to find the resonance frequency which is the frequency with the highest voltage. In order to test this experimentally, we fluctuate the frequency with a function generator. Q, which is the quality factor, can then be measured and compared.

4 3.5 3 2.5 Voltage (v) 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.01 0.1 1

RLC Circuit

10 Frequency (Hz)

100

1000

10000

III.

Analysis

Our first task in the lab was verifying Ohms Law using the Direct Current. Being able to measure the resistance r and the computer reading the voltage data, we were able to use Ohms Law to find the current. Once we plotted the current against the voltage we were able to find experimental value for 1/R from the slope of a linear regression. As the graph demonstrate the slope was m=0.0011 (m = 0.00002 and b = 0.00003) these values were found from Excel. Our experimental resistance was 909 Ohms. Rexp (ohms) 909 0.00002 Rmeasured (ohms) 985 0.05 R % 7.7

In the next part, we had to analyze the circuit diode so we could find the experimental ratio between e/kB. Having obtained this we could compare it to the theoretical ratio. The next table shows the data in finding the theoretical ratio. To do this we first calculate the current data by dividing the voltage by the resistance that we measured. Then I took the next step to linearize the data which will then be plotted against then voltage data. This

finally lets us find the linear regression of the graph which will give us the experimental ratio.

Current (Linearized) vs Voltage

0.00E+00 -2.00E+00 -4.00E+00 ln(I+Io) (amps) -6.00E+00 -8.00E+00 -1.00E+01 -1.20E+01 -1.40E+01 -1.60E+01 -1.80E+01 y = 18.976x - 22.987 R = 0.967 Voltage (v) 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75

The slope of that regression can be seen in Figure 2 to be m = 18.976 the values of m = 0.0387 and b = 0.0244 from Excel, which when multiplied by n*T yields a ratio of 1192.8. All of the data is summarized in the table below. e (C) 1.6022E-19 kB (J/K) 1.3806E-23 e/kB_th 11604.9 r (ohms) 104 n 2 T (K) 293 e/kB_exp 12012.4 ratio % 3.39

For the analysis section I will choose to analyze the RC circuit for the AC part of the lab. For this we have to find the experimental time constant of the circuit. Similar to how we linearized the voltage data before I will take the same steps again in order to find the approximate linear regression. In the following graph we will plot this. As we can see the slope is -878.32. I found the value of m = 11.2747 and b = 0.04183 by using excel In the AC portion of the lab, we were allowed to choose either the RC or the RL data to analyze and find the experimental time constant for the circuit. I chose to analyze the RC circuit. Again, we had to linearize the voltage data in order to take an approximate a linear regression. That data is plotted below in Figure 6 and resulted in a regression slope of m = -923.81. The error values were taken from excel m = 11.2747 and b = 0.04183. Taking the inverse of this slope gave us an experimental time constant of 0.00108.

RC Circuit Linearized
2 1.5 1 ln(Vb - V) (v) 0.5 0 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008

-0.5 -1 -1.5 -2

y = -878.32x + 3.3568

Time (s)

In order to find the theoretical value of the time constant we simply need to multiply the resistor and capacitor values together.
tauth = RC: tauth = 991*(1*10-6) tauth = 0.000991

Table 8: Summarizes our theoretical and experimental time constant data. th (s) exp (s) % 0.001139 0.000991 12.99 Now we are going to start the analysis section for the RLC circuit by initially calculating the theoretical resonance frequency.

fres-th =

1 2p LC

Fres-th=15915.5 (Hz) Inductance (H) 0.0001 Capacitance (F) 0.000001 fres-th (Hz) 15915.5 fres-exp (Hz) 37500 f % 10.02

Our final task for the lab was to find the Q, or the quality factor of the circuit.

Q=

fres ( f1 - f2 )

In order to find the value of Q we must first find the values for f1 and for f2. In order to this we simply take Vf = Vmax / 2 and match up the corresponding frequency to that voltage. Vmax (v) 3.44 Vf (v) 2.43 f1 (Hz) 1080 f2 (Hz) 262000 Q 0.14

IV.

Conclusion:

In the initial phase of the lab we proved Ohms law as there was clearly a linear relationship between the resistance and the voltage. We also used inductors to show this relationship can be changed. We also gained experience in calculating equivalent resistance for ones in series and parallel. Also we saw how temperature can have a major impact on the resistance of the metal. The second part of the lab was focused on exploring the nature of Alternating Currents. Time and voltage clearly have a relationship through the natural log. While we did not have to include our data for RL circuit our numbers did look correct upon visual inspection. The final part had us using an RLC circuit and testing experimentally in order to find the resonance frequency. I feel quite confident that we found the resonance frequency from our graph. Overall the lab when quite well as much of our data was accurate. We were able to learn a lot about Alternating Currents and Direct Currents as well as prove some of the electrical laws for physics.