IA Resource
IA Resource
International Baccalaureate
Physics Extended Essay
May 2015
Abstract
The aim of this experiment is to investigate the question of “How temperature effects on
power of battery in a circuit?” Lithium batteries which we use commonly on daily life, are
Batteries have 1.5V electric potential. Their size is rated as D and IEC(International
using water bath and measured its value by using digital surface thermometer. The data
collected in certain points of temperature. Battery was put in a circuit and made the circuit
running with closing the circuit. The ammeter attached to the circuit in series and voltmeter
attached to parallel to the battery. The cables and battery which was used in the experiment
covered with water-proof material to prevent the possible negative effect because batteries
and certain parts of cables need to be in the water to prevent any measurement error. The
retrieved when the temperature of battery reached to 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 550C.
Data that recorded in this experiment are ampere, voltage, resistance of the circuit and
temperature of battery. These data are measured by a multi-meter which can measure DC
current, potential difference (voltage), temperature and resistance. The calculation according
to the value of current and voltage was made for obtaining the power of battery. Differences
of power of battery were observed according to result and in the graph due to temperature
changes. Results show that the power of battery increases proportionally with the temperature
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Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………...….…..2
1.Introduction…………………………….………………………………………………..….4
Background Information……………………………………………………………...….….5
1.2 Voltage………………………………………………………………………...……....…...5
1.3 Ampere……………………………………………………………………………...……...5
1.6 Voltmeter..............................................................................................................................8
1.7 Ammeter…............................................................................................................................8
2.Design……………………………………………………………………………….……….9
2.2 Hypothesis……………………………………………………………………..……..…….9
2.3 Variables………………………………………………………………………………….10
2.5 Materials……………………………………………………………………….…….……15
2.6 Method……………………………………………………………………….….......……16
3.2 Calculations…………………………………………………………………………..…...20
5.References……………………………………….……………………………………...….26
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1.Introduction
The scope of this investigation is to find out the effect of temperature on power of
batteries. In daily life, a lot of device we use needs a battery to obtain electrical energy. And
these energy suppliers efficiency of power they able to give is very important for running the
devices safely and outlasting the batteries life in phones, laptops. There are some external
factors affect on the power of battery and one of probable factor effect on this is the
temperature of surrounding where the battery works in. So in this experiment as a power
supplier common D size and1.5V battery is used for observing the effect of temperature on
power of battery easily and clearly. Other reason for using 1.5V of battery is because in daily
life these have the one of the most areas of usage in numbers from other batteries. Increase in
temperature may affect the power of battery they able to give by interfere with internal
resistance of the battery by causing expansion of the conductor parts in the circuit so due to
Ohm’s Law which indicates the relationship of certain terms like ampere, voltage and
resistance, clearly states that resistance of circuit difference changes the ampere and voltage
which are the key factors to deduce the power of energy supplier. So the aim of this
experiment is to answer the question of “How the surrounding temperature of battery does
affect on the power of battery by using 1.5V D size batteries to observe the possible effect of
temperature change on power of battery can able to give?”. The objective of this
investigation is to find a temperature that battery can work efficiently by observing the output
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Background Information
Batteries are used for converting chemical energy to electrical energy for using as an
energy supplier. They produce direct current which can pass through the conductive wires in
one direction. They also have cathode which is the positive part of the battery and anode
which is the negative part of the battery. Their working principle is to create a way in a circuit
that ions can pass through and obtaining flow in the battery so the battery starts to work.
brand “Eveready”
1.2 Voltage
potential difference between two points in a circuit or electrical field. There are two types of
voltage; one of them is direct voltage and the other one is alternating voltage. In battery there
is direct voltage, so direct voltage will be measured in this experiment since we use used
1.3 Ampere
Ampere is the measurement of the number of electric charges passes from a certain
point in unit time. Ampere is a unit measure of electrical current in the circuits. There are
two types of current. One of this is alternating current (AC) and the other one is direct current
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(DC). AC current is a wave like current that can flow periodically. It can also has different
direction. DC current is different from AC current because it has one motion direction. This
type of current can pass through in conductive wires and flows in constant path. So in this
experiment we take measurements according to direct current (DC) due to power supply are
battery.
1.4 Resistance
Resistance is the opposing effect that interfere the flow of electric current. Unit of
resistance is “ohm” which is shown with using “Ω” symbol. Every substance has different
resistance and also two same elements can also has different resistance from each other.
charges needs to travel over more distance and this causes electrical charges be exposed to
more resistance on their way. Unit of length of the conductor needs to be meter (m) for
calculations.
Cross-sectional area is also a very important factor for determining the resistance
value of a substance. Cross sectional area has different affect on resistance from the length of
substance. Cross sectional area is inversely proportional to resistance. If the cross sectional
area increases the resistance of the substance decreases because electrical charges can move
easily in large cross sectional area so they will be exposed less resistance along the way.
Cross sectional area needs to be square meter (m2) for determining the resistance of the
substance. Cross-sectional area and length changes with temperature due to expanding
property of metals.
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There is another factor that is very important for determining the resistance of a
substance is what material substance is made of. Electrical resistivity is differs in every
material due to its made of material. Electrical resistivity of metals is the lower than non-
metals and semimetals so metals are used for making conductor wires. The unit of electrical
The relationship between cross sectional area, length and material for determining
resistance of a conductor can be seen in the following equation. Also resistances can be
Internal resistance is the resistance in a circuit because of the inner system of the
battery. Voltage value without any resistance differs from voltage value in a current due to the
internal resistance of batteries. Internal resistance value of a battery depends on some factors
like the size, chemical properties and temperature. So if temperature affect on power of
battery is investigated, chemical properties and size of the battery need to be stabilized to
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1.6 Voltmeter
Internal resistance value of ammeter needs to be low because it needs to be connected the
circuit in series so resistance of this device can prevent the flow in the circuit easily. I used
Ohm’s Law states the relationship between resistance voltage and ampere in a circuit.
According to Ohm’s Law, potential difference is directly proportional to current of the circuit.
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How the temperature of battery does affect on the power of 1.5V and D size batteries,
to observe the possible effect of temperature change on power of battery identical circuits
2.2 Hypothesis
Increasing of temperature from the common room temperature increases the power of
battery that can able to give by causing expansion of internal conductive parts of the battery.
This situation may causes decrease in internal resistance of batteries and due to this situation
total resistance of circuit decreases and this decrease in resistance interfere the ampere and
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2.3 Variables
Dependent Variable
Power of battery
Independent Variable
Controlled Variables
1. Voltage of Battery
2. Brand of Battery
3. Chemistry of Battery
9. Pressure of surrounding
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Batteries need to have same voltage before the experiment for observing the possible
difference of the voltage value due to temperature change. To get more reliable result and
compare the difference between possible differences of voltage, making the initial voltage
For stabilizing the initial voltage value of batteries 1.5V batteries prepared for the
experiment.
Although all batteries with different brands in the market looks similar and same
values written on them, all batteries with different brands in the market have different
electrical quality, this situation changes the affect of external factors on battery. Because of
this situation, we need to stabilize these affect rate of batteries to get more reliable result from
the experiment.
For minimizing the difference between affection rate in batteries, batteries with
3) Chemistry of battery
need to stabilize the chemical materials used in the batteries to investigate the physical
result of the experiment without being interfered by chemical differences. Also conductive
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For minimizing the chemistry of battery, alkaline based batteries used in every trial
in this experiment.
4) Resistance of resistor
The resistance of the circuit needs to be constant to observe the difference between the
So resistor with 1 ohm resistance used in all trials for make the resistance constant in the
circuit.
The resistance of circuit needs to be constant every trial to observe the voltage and
ampere differences only affected by the situation of battery, otherwise the measured values
will become unreliable due to resistance difference in the circuit apart from batteries.
For stabilizing the resistance, identical cables with 2 cables with 3cm are used every
Conductivity of conductor material may differ from each other due to made of
material. Because every metal has different resistance constant so difference between
materials of the cables affects the resistance and the calculated voltage and ampere values of
the battery.
For stabilizing the resistance of circuit, cables which are made of copper is used in
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Thickness of the cables in the circuit is also the key factor for determining the
resistance of cables. So thickness of cables needs to be constant for calculating and comparing
For stabilizing the resistance of circuit, cables which has 0.1cm diameter are used in
During the data calculation digits and sensitivity of raw data values are very important
to get more reliable answers from the experiment. So the multi-meters used in this experiment
needs to measure the voltage with same digits and precise among them.
For obtain reliable result from the experiment, multi-meters which can measure the
volt with 3 digits after integer part of the value used in all trials of this experiment. Also these
During the data calculation ampere values are another key factor that determine the
result and its reliability so measuring devices for measuring ampere needs to be same
sensitivity and precise with each other. 2 multi-meter used in this experiment for see the
For obtaining more reliable result, raw data needs to have same number of digits
because during data comparing, results need to have same number of digit to obtain precise
results. So in this experiment, multi-meters which can measure 3 digits after integer value of
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To get rid of any errors due to air pressure, air pressure of the room needs to be
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Resistor x 2 (1ohm)
Copper cable x 2
Digital Infrared Thermometer
o 6cm length 1.5V D sized Batteries Barometer
o 0.1cm diameter
Digital Multi-meter x 2
o Ampere ±0.001A
o Voltage ±0.001V
Ruler(30.0cm±0.1)
Pliers
Utility Knife
Scissors
Barometer
Water Heater
Surgical Gloves
Barometer
Reistantance
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2.6 Method
2. Attach 1ohm resistor between the cables with bending the metal parts of the wires.
3. Set multi-meter to resistivity meter and attach the resistance and take measurement of
6. Take a surgical glove and put the battery inside of the glove.
7. Tie a knot to the opening of the glove to prevent the water flow into the glove because
8. Put the surgical glove with battery to the boiling water in the glass carefully to prevent
damage to the experimenter. (You can wear oven glove to prevent burned skin due to
hot water.)
10. Put out the glove carefully from the glass when the temperature of the battery becomes
57.00C.
11. Carefully cut the glove and put out the battery.
12. Set one multi-meter as ammeter and the other one as voltmeter.
13. Attach battery to voltmeter and record the data as electromotive force of the battery.
15. Attach the voltmeter parallel to battery and the ammeter in series to the circuit.
16. Record the data read from the ammeter as current and voltmeter as voltage.
17. Do steps 4th to 16th for 3 times with different batteries to get accurate results.
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18. Do steps 4th to 17th with the changing the temperature of battery to “10, 20, 25, 30, 35,
19. Do calculation for obtaining power of the battery with using experimental data
20. Sketch the graph of temperature of battery vs. power of battery to get a better visual to
water.
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temperature of battery.
difference with voltmeter and the ampere value of the circuit with ammeter.
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3.Data Collection and Processing
3.2 Calculations
Ԑ = I x (R+r)
Ԑ= Electromotive Forces (Voltage recorded when only battery attached to the voltmeter) (V)
I= Current of circuit (Ampere recorded when ammeter attached to the circuit in series) (A)
Ԑ=1.526V
I=0.959A
So,
1.526
= 1.591Ω = (𝑅 + 𝑟)
0.959
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0.191+0.193+0.192
=0.192Ω
3
1.463+1.483+1.482
= 1.476W
3
Average Internal
Temperature of Average Power of
0
Resistance of
Battery(±0.1 C) Batteries(±0.001W)
Batteries(±0.001Ω)
Table 2: Shows processed data (power of battery, internal resistance of battery) which are
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Graph 1: Shows the relationship between power of battery and the temperature of the battery.
Y- axis starts from 1.4W value and ends at 1.7W and X-axis starts from 00C and ends at 600C.
Graph also has error bars which indicate the uncertainty of power of battery and temperature
of battery. For make it easier to see the relationship there is also best line of the experimental
values with slope of data. There are also maximum and minimum bars for calculating
experimental error.
𝑊
Equation of the Experiment: 𝑃 = (0.003283 ) 𝑇 + 1.435𝑊
℃
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Error Calculation
𝟎.𝟎𝟎𝟑𝟏𝟖𝟎−𝟎.𝟎𝟎𝟐𝟖𝟎𝟎 𝑊
= ±𝟏. 𝟗 × 𝟏𝟎-4
𝟐 ℃
𝑊
Slope of the graph= 0.003283±0.000190
℃
This experiment clearly answers the research question and the hypothesis is confirmed
which is power of battery increases proportional with temperature of battery. Experiment not
only answers the research question but also shows the reasons of this result. From the graph it
can be understood that the power of battery increases proportionally with the temperature of
the battery. Also, internal resistance of the battery is inversely proportional to power of
battery and temperature. With some certain calculations, the internal resistance of each battery
calculated and these data shows that internal resistance changed while we were changing the
temperature of battery. So the power differences due to temperature are caused by the change
in internal resistance of the battery. Internal resistance of battery decreases when its
temperature increases due to expansion of metal conductive parts in it. It also indicates that
cross-sectional area of metal parts expansion is bigger than the expansion of its length. To
conclude experiment shows that the efficiency of battery increases proportionally with
temperature because efficiency of a battery can be determined with the formula of “Potential
Difference of Battery/Electromotive force of Battery” and experiment shows that this rate
There are some error bars in the graph of the experiment which indicate some errors in
the experiment. For example, in the first trial of 450C battery, the electro motive force of
battery is 1.563V where the battery works in circuit with 1.001A so the power of battery used
is 1.565W. on the other hand, in the 1st trial of 400C, the electro motive force of battery is
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1.576V and ampere value of circuit is 1.007 so the power of this battery calculated as
1.587W. According to the result of the experiment, power increases proportional with
temperature but in this example an opposite situation observed on these two batteries.
Temperature of the battery increased but power of battery is lower than the other battery
which is colder than it. This situation is caused by the random errors due to sensitivity of
measuring devices, observer factor, and difficulties of controlling controlled variables. These
factors can be seen as not make such a big difference in results but they combined in the
process of experiment that causes some errors that slightly affects the results of trials which
First of all, the sensitivity of the measuring devices used in the experiment caused
some minor errors in the process of experiment. The multi-meter used in the experiment can
measure ampere till 0.001A and it also can measure the voltage till 0.001V so it has
uncertainty of “±0.001” for both ampere and voltage values in all trials in the experiment.
These uncertainties is low but the function of resistivity meter of multi-meter can only
measure 0.1Ω so it has high uncertainty for measuring the resistance of cables and resistors
used in for making a circuit. Also the resistor with 1Ω value has %5 tolerances so the
We can minimize the error due to these factors by making more trials for same
independent variable to minimize the errors from the sensitivity of measuring devices.
Making more trials can lead some another random errors but it certainly decreases the
average value of the trials we can obtain more precise and accurate data for getting reliable
results.
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Other factor that affects the results of the experiment is the observer factor in the
experiment. For example when I attach the battery to the circuit, some parts of surface of
cable not covered by non-conductor material and I touched it with bare hands. The current in
the circuit is very high due to the low resistance value of the circuit so it causes some minor
burns in my hand and my hand may cause increase in resistance in the circuit which may
affect the results of the trial. Also, there is an another situation that affects cause some random
errors by experimenter factor can be seen in the process of putting out the glove bag from the
hot water and taking out the battery from the glove bag. During this process, when the bag cut
of the small amount of water droplets drop on to the battery which may cause damage to the
battery but I instantly dried batteries with towel so it may not cause any major error.
We can minimize the problems due to the experimenter factor in the experiment by
using non-conductive gloves while touching the circuit and drying the glove bag before
Finally, there are some errors due to controlling difficulties of some controlled
the circuit. However, the process of taking measurements takes only 10 to 15 seconds the
temperature change during this short period may caused some errors.
We can minimize this error by making the experiment in different circuit which we
can attach the battery in the water and the bag to the circuit so we can prevent both
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5.References
Approach. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Taylor & Francis, 2007. Print.
a-battery/>.
<http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/ampere>.
6. "Emf and Internal Resistance." Emf and Internal Resistance. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec.
2014. <http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/302l/lectures/node57.html
wiki/Internal_resistance>.
<http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/ohm/Q.ohm.intro.html>.
rev.com/svpwiki/tiki-index.php?page=battery>.
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