How Length And Width Of Copper Wire Affect The Current

Investigating How Length and Width of Copper Wire Affect the Current of a Circuit

Task: To investigate how length and width of copper wire affect on the current of a circuit.

Prediction:

In this experiment, the input variable will be changing the length of the copper wire used in the experiment, and also the SWG of the wire, which means the width of the wire. By changing this variable, the current the circuit will vary.

With my knowledge in science and some research on the factors that affect a circuit's resistance. I am able to predict that the copper wires which will measure 33cm, 66cm and 99cm will have resistances which will increase as the wire gets longer, so therefore the 33cm wire

Another small problem could have been that crocodile clips and their positions on the wires which may not have been of their desired precise measurements have changed reading by maybe 0.1 of an ohm? Well, it is certainly difficult to undertake such experiments as these in the conditions a non-sophisticated school laboratory provides.

2. Were there any results that didn't fit in with others? Could you explain why?

As I wrote before, the conditions of the laboratory and its equipment may not have been up to the high standards of a scientist's organization's lab, so therefore I managed to spot that three readings in my experiments seemed to be too different from the other set of results in the same experiment. Out of place result number one was experiment #1 in the 66cm/18 SWG, its reading was of 6.91 ohms, and also experiment number two in the same group showed a reading of 6.73 ohms. Another experiment was also out of place from its

In question number two I conclude that these three out of place results caused the average result in the series to be imprecise, meaning that I should not have included it in my averages box. Maybe the laboratory was of good standard but I maybe took those three results wrongly and should have been more careful about my setup of the diagram at those precise times.

3. Was your experiment suitable to answer your task?

The aim of the task was to "Investigate how length and width of copper wire affect on the current of a circuit", so I cannot see a reason why my experiment wasn't the most suitable way of answering the aim of the investigation.

4. How could you improve your experiment?

Because of the various factors that affected my results, I could have used an environment with temperature control, so at least this fact could have been improved on. Another thing that could have been improved was the way my apparatus was set up, the wires were not suspended in the air while my readings were taken, so maybe the readings could have changed slightly if they were not on a wooden table, even though wood doesn't conduct electricity or did 6 volts