An Investigation into Factors Affecting Resistance of a Wire :: Papers

An Investigation into Factors Affecting Resistance of a Wire Plan: The possible variables I could use to find out factors affecting resistance are material wire is made of, length of wire, temperature and cross sectional area of wire. I will use cross sectional area of wire and length of wire because I think it will be hard to draw conclusions from the material of wire. I am not doing temperature because it would be hard to get results from and I think they wouldn't be as accurate. I will set up a circuit to find out how length and cross sectional area affect resistance. I will need the following components in my circuit to gather all of the necessary results: Â · Component holder- So I can change the wire that I am testing. Â · Voltmeter- Measuring potential difference across the wire, it will have to be across the wire and not just anywhere in the circuit so it is measuring the P.D across the wire I am testing only. Â · Ammeter - measuring current of the circuit, with his and the voltmeter I will be able to work put resistance (R=V/I). As a safety consideration I will keep the Current under 0.5 amps, so the wire doesn't get too hot. Â · Rheostat- So I can vary the voltage in the circuit to take two readings for each wire at different voltages, I will work out an average of the two to reduce the margin of error. Â · Switch- A safety consideration, so the wire doesn't overheat and burn if the circuit is left on for too long. I have decided to test length of wire at, 10cm, 30cm, 50cm, 70cm, 90cm, 110cm, 130cm, 150cm and 170cm keeping a constant cross sectional area of 0.028mm2. I will test cross sectional area at the Cross sectional areas of wire: 0.028 mm2, 0.045 mm2, 0.057 mm2, 0.113 mm2, 0.166 mm2 and 0.246 mm2, keeping a constant length of 50cm. My preliminary work reviled that these were the best constants, and