Laboratory Activity 3

Ohm’s Law

Name: Date: March 30, 2023

Section: 1-BSEcE-A

I. Objectives
1. To identify the relationship between the voltage, resistance and current in a circuit.

II. Procedure

Simulation Link: https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc/latest/circuit-

construction-kit-dc_en.html

A. Varying Voltage

1. In the simulation, click on Lab

2. Follow the setup shown in the figure above by connecting a battery to a resistor with two wires.
3. Drag the current widget and place the target on a wire to measure the current in the wire.
4. Set the resistance by clicking on the resistor and changing the value. You choose any positive value
you want for the resistance. Put the value below:

Resistance (𝑅𝐴 ): 15 ohms

Choose any positive value

5. Now change the voltage to 10V by clicking the battery. Then get the value of the current in the wire
and record it to Table 1.
6. Repeat step 5 for a voltage of 20V, 30V, 40V and 50V.
Table 1. Current with Varying Voltage.

Voltage 𝑽 Current 𝑰
(V) (A)
10 0.67A

20 1.33A

30 2.00A
40 2.67A

50 3.33A

7. Plot a 𝑰 vs. 𝑽 graph. (Current on the y-axis and Voltage in the x-axis). Get the slope of the graph and
paste your graph below:

Current (𝑰) vs. Voltage (𝑽)

3.5
y = 0.0666x + 0.002
3

2.5
Current (I)

1.5

0.5

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Voltage (V)
 B. Varying Resistance

8. Set the voltage to any positive value you want. Put the value below:

Voltage (𝑉𝐴 ): 50 volts

Choose any positive value

9. Now change the resistance to 10Ω by clicking the battery. Then get the value of the current in the
wire and record it to Table 1.
10. Repeat step 5 for a voltage of 10Ω, 20Ω, 30Ω, and 50Ω.

Table 2. Current with Varying Resistance

𝟏
Resistance 𝑹 Current 𝑰
(Ω) 𝑹 (A)
(1/Ω)
10 0.1 5A

20 0.05 2.50A
30 0.033 1.67A

40 0.025 1.25A
50 0.02 1A

𝟏 1
11. Plot a 𝑰 vs. 𝑹 graph. (Current on the y-axis and 𝑅 in the x-axis). Get the slope of the graph and paste
your graph below:

Current (𝑰) vs. 𝟏/𝑹 (resistance)

6

5 y = 49.94x + 0.0067

4
Current (I)

0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
𝟏/𝑹 (resistance)
III. Questions
1. What happened to the current as you increased the voltage?

2. What happened to the current as you increased the resistance?

3. What does the slope of the 𝑰 vs. 𝑽 graph represent?

𝟏
4. What does the slope of the 𝑰 vs. 𝑹 graph represent?