Circuits 1

Nearly everything we do involves circuits of some sort. Turning on lights, making a cup of tea, watching television are everyday examples. Circuits can be very simple, such as a light bulb, or extremely complicated and involving many different components. In order to understand how any circuit works, we need to understand how electric current flows through it. 

This experiment is about understanding simple electronic circuits. It will introduce you to the measurement of voltage, current and resistance in simple direct current circuits through a verification of Ohm’s law. You will also become more familiar with key methods of error analysis, finding the best straight-line fit to a data set, and see an example where a systematic error makes a precise result quite inaccurate. 

Current students can find more information on Learn Ultra. 

In this session you will have

• Learnt how voltage and current are divided in a circuit (Kirchhoff's Law)
• Built simple electrical circuits
• Practised creating graphs