Investigating the Relationship Between the Length of a Wire and Its Resistance

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Investigating the Relationship Between the Length of a Wire and Its Resistance

Aim: To find the relationship between the length of a wire and it’s

resistance.

Planning: We conducted a preliminary experiment to help us conduct the

real experiment. In this preliminary experiment we aimed to find out

what thickness and type of wire would be suitable for the experiment,

and what range of lengths of wire and range of voltages and currents

would be suitable for measuring.

We discovered that at too great a voltages and too short a length, the

wire became very hot. One time it melted, in a way similar to a fuse,

because of the hot temperature, but this was only when we tested a

length of 2cm. We thought that these high temperatures might have an

effect on the resistance of the wire, but did not happen to a great

extent. This would have been a bad thing, however, as we were

conducting the experiment to find out solely the effect of the length

of wire on resistance, and not the temperature of the wire.

Below are the results of our preliminary experiment:

30cm

60cm

volts

current

current

1

0.65

0.37

2

1.43

0.79

3

2.09

1.12

4

2.65

1.42

5

3.52

1.87

6

4.03

2.2

7

4.97

2.6

8

5.16

2.84

9

6.29

3.23

10

6.64

3.65

11

7.91

4.15

12

9.84

4.76

I made the graphs below using these results.

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The results from the preliminary experiment were not particuarily

accurate. I calculated the average resistance for each wire. This was

1.44ohms for 30cm and 2.69ohms for 60cm. This preliminary experiment

encouraged us to be as accurate as possible in the main experiment, in

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