Lab 1 Report
Electrical Measurements
Name: Hasibullah Fnu
Date: 09/08/2017
Instructor: Abebe
I. Objectives
The purpose of this experiment was to introduce the basic concepts of electric circuits
through 3 different experiments. In the first experiment, we set up and studied the behaviors of
Direct Current (DC) circuits by measuring the current and voltage in two different set-ups. In the
first circuit, the resistance R came from a resistor. Then, we calculated the ratio V/I and
compared it to the actual value R of the resistor. In the second set-up, we changed the resistance
of the circuit into a light bulb to see what would happen with the circuit.
In the second experiment, we measured the voltage and frequency of Alternating Current
circuits using an oscilloscope. Then we compared the data recorded from the oscilloscope with
the output generated by the function generator.
II. Set-up and Theory
For the first experiment, we set up two circuits in order to study the behaviors of the
current, voltage and resistance of DC circuits. The first circuit looked like this:
Figure 1: DC circuit using the resistor
2
Low Voltage AC/DC Power Supply (LVPS) was used as the power source of the
circuit. After connecting all the wires, we started to measure, read and record the data of the
circuit by using the Digital Multimeter (DMM). DMM was connected in two different ways:
parallel and in series when measuring the voltage and current respectively.
Figure 2: Voltmeter Connection Figure 3: Ammeter Connection
In DC Circuits, the voltage and current do not change with time and their values
follow the formula:
V=IR
V
R=
I
where V is the voltage difference between the two ends of the component, I is the
current through it, and R is its resistance.
In this case, the only component we had was the resistor. Since the resistance of the
V
resistor is always a constant, the fraction will remain constant regardless of the values of
I
V and I.
In the second circuit, we performed the same procedures as above with the light bulb.
However, the resistance in this situation varies.
3
In the second experiment, we observed the operation of AC circuits. A function
generator was used to generate an AC voltage output. An oscilloscope showed the voltage
signal on the screen. Next, we measured the voltage and frequency of the generator. In order
to find the voltage, we recorded the divisions from the bottom of a trough to the top of the
crest of the sine wave and the voltage per divisions on the oscilloscope. We were able to
retrieve the voltage of the AC circuit by these steps:
Peak to Peak voltage = divisions x voltages per divisions
peak to peak voltage
voltage =
2
After that, we recorded the number of divisions from a certain number of cycles and
the seconds per division on the horizontal axis. We were able to find out the frequency by
these steps:
Time of n cycles = divisions x seconds per division
Time of n cycles
Period =
n
1
f=
T
III. Data and Analysis
1. Voltage, Current and Resistance in DC Circuits
a. Resistance of the resistance with the Digital Multimeter
Red Black Red Gold
2 0 102 5%
4
b. Circuit with the resistor
From the data table below, we can see that the resistance value was roughly constant
when we changed the voltage of the power supply. The reason is that resistor has a constant
resistance. Therefore, with the resistor being the only component of the circuit, the fraction V/I is
equal to the value of resistor we measured before (3.07 percent difference). Besides that, the
voltage reading is almost equal to the voltage output indicated on the power supply. This equality
is not always guaranteed. For example, in the circuit with two resistors in series, the voltage
measured at two ends of each resistor would be different from the voltage output by the power
supply since two resistors have to share the voltage from the power supply.
Trial Voltage Output I V R=V/I
(V) (mA) (V) (k)
1 2 0.927 2.030 2.190
2 4 1.862 4.050 2.175
3 6 2.850 6.060 2.126
4 8 3.850 8.110 2.106
5 10 4.840 10.050 2.076
Average of R(k) (1) 2.135
Measured resistance of the resistor(k) (2) 2.070
|(1) (2)| 3.072%
= 100%
(1) + (2)
( )
2
Data Table 1: Circuit with Resistor
5
c. Circuit with the light bulb
The resistance value of the light bulb in this case was not a constant. It varied when we
changed the voltage of the power supply. We could easily see an increasing trend when we
increased the voltage.
Trial LVPS voltage I V R=VLVPS/I
(V) (mA) (V) (k)
1 2.000 0.270 2.060 7.407
2 4.000 0.390 4.040 10.256
3 6.000 0.480 6.040 12.500
4 7.000 0.570 8.020 12.281
5 10.000 0.640 10.000 15.625
Average of I (mA) 0.470
Average of V (V) 6.032
Power released by the light bulb =IxV (mJ) 2.835
Data Table 2: Circuit with light bulb
d. Voltage and Frequency Measurements with the Oscilloscope
a. Determine the voltage of the generator by the oscilloscope
Trial Voltage/division Division Peak to Peak Voltage Voltage
(V/div) (div) peak V (V) from the
(V) generator(V)
1 2.0 5.2 10.4 5.2 5
2 5.0 3.0 14.0 7.0 7
3 0.5 4.0 2.0 1.0 1
4 1.0 4.0 4.0 2.0 2
5 2.0 6.0 12.0 6.0 6
6
Square 5.0 4.0 20.0 10.0 10
Data Table 3: Voltage of the function generator
Frequency Sweeps Division Time per Time of n Period Measured Percent
(Hz) (div) Division sweeps (ms, s) frequency error
(ms, s) (ms, s) (Hz) (%)
500 3 6.1 1.0 ms 6.10 ms 2.033 ms 491.8 1.64
800 2 5.0 0.5 ms 2.50 ms 1.250 ms 800 0.00
3,000 3 5.1 0.2 ms 1.02 ms 0.340 ms 2,941.1 1.96
10,000 3 6.0 50 s 300 s 100.000 s 10,000 0.00
12,000 3 5.2 50 s 260 s 86.667 s 11,538 3.85
Data Table 4: frequency of the function generator
SAMPLE CALCULATION
Experiment 1: Voltage, Current and Resistance in DC Circuits.
1. Measure Resistance of the resistance with the Digital Multimeter
Resistor: Red/ Black/Red/Gold
Coded resistance of the resistor = 20x102 = 2000
Resistor Tolerance = 2000 x (5%)
Experiment 2: Voltage and Frequency Measurements with the Oscilloscope:
1. Sine Wave output:
Measurement #1:
Volt/Div Setting: 2Volt/Div
Time/Div Setting: 0.2x10-3 s/Div
Peak-to-peak voltage = 5.2 div x 2V/div = 10.4 (V)
Peak voltage = peak-to-peak voltage = 10.4/2 = 5.2 (V)
7
2. Square Wave output:
Volt/Div Setting: 2Volt/Div
Peak-to-peak voltage = 4 div x 5V/div = 20 (V)
Peak voltage = peak-to-peak voltage = 20/2 = 10(V)
Conclusion:
This experiment is to measure electrical circus: voltage, current, and resistance with a
digital multimeter. In experiment 1, the measured resistance values are constant. The
resistor voltage reading values with the DMM are almost the same with the voltage out
put reading values on the LVPS. The resistance values are also proportional to voltage.
The percent error for this experiment is pretty low, 3.072% for 5 measurements.
Experiment 2 is to measure the voltage and frequency output of a function generator with
the oscilloscope. The percent errors for this experiment was ok, 0-3.85% for 5 readings.
These errors maybe caused by the wrong reading so we didnt get the precise
measurements. I learned a lot from this lab.
