Capacitance

For our capacitance experiment we tried to find a relationship between the surface area of the plates and the distance apart the capacitors are from each other. to do this we used aluminum squares and a book to vary the size and distance. first we used a small square and measured the capacitance between 1, 10, 20, and 50 sheets of paper to get a relationship between capacitance and distance.

This is the book and how we measured the capacitance between papers. when we put the aluminum between pages we had to create tabs that popped out of the edge to hook on to the alligator clips. the hard part was getting the aluminum to not touch.

 

These are the results from our experiment were we were able to solve for the constant k within our derived capacitance equation which we found to be 6.58

Using this data we input it into the excel

 

From the data from excel we created a graphical representation of our results were we saw a parabolic curve where the slope of the curve stands for the constant of k.

 

When you reverse a capacitor, with enough voltage you can get an explosive reaction that could harm you.

here we looked at the capacitors in series and in parallel and found that they are opposite that of the resistors. when capacitors are in parallel they are added together and when in series they are added inversely.

this is just some of the examples used in determining the capacitance of a circuit.

circuits

this is were we calculated the current flowing through the parallel circuit and derived a formula that showed the current in I1 is equivalent to the two connecting currents. 

This is the set up of our parallel circuit and what we used to measure current and resistance. 

This is the setup of our series circuit where the light bulbs are set up in series

This is our calculation for the current and resistance of a series and we found that the potential is equal to the sum of the potentials. we also found that the resistance is constant throughout the circuit. 

This is our table of how we analyzed resistors and used the colors on the resistors to unveil its identity. we noticed that some of the resistors have a lower uncertainty and would be more ideal for measurements requiring a higher precision of accuracy. 

This is the diagram of resistors that are set up like so and using this we calculated the total resistance. when we calculated the expected value of 52 ohms, we created the same circuit shown below and measured the resistance where we got an experimental value of 51 ohms. 

here we evaluated a circuit using loops law and kirkoffs law where we came up with 3 equations with 3 unknowns so that we could find the current through each wire. 

potential

The diagram of a point charge from a charged ring and on the right is an excel worksheet of us trying to determine the potential of the ring using sums of segments. then we moved the particle up to where it was parallel to the top of the ring and did the same thing. what we found was that the potential at this point is much higher than that at the center of the ring. this is because the potential from the bottom to the top of the ring is greater than from the center to the edges. 

we derived a formula for the potential of a point charge anywhere in the xy plane from the center of a finite bar. then we derived another formula for if the distance was from the point charge to any point on the bar. 

In this experiment we observed the potential difference between a point charge and a line. using a current of 12V we measured incrementally from the point toward the line. using this data found in the excel ws, we found a graph that did not fit our predictions. our potential vs distance is inversely proportional however the points deviated a lot from the fit curve. this could be due to the fluctuation of the current flowing through the paper. 

hot dog powers

This is the parallel circuit we created for dim light celebration. hooray!!

For this lab we had to determine the change in temperature using the given voltage output and charge density of nicromium. we did this by manipulating the power formula to obtain the current. from this we were given uncertainty in the mass of water and voltage. using these uncertainties we calculated the uncertainty in current and in change in temp. With this uncertainty the experimental value was not within our uncertainty. This could be due to the charge density used for our calculations where other groups differed.

This is the graphical result from the experiment where we found change in temp over 10 min. the blue graph represents the results for doubling the voltage where we saw that the change in temp did not double but increased by a factor of four. this could be shown from the above picture where the formula for change in temp, V is squared. 

This is our results from experimenting with electric potential where charges were moved and added. Here we had to wrap around the thought of negative and positive electric potential energy. 

To finish the class we showed how hot dogs carry current and to prove that leds were lit by placing them in the hotdog. Also with the hot dog experiment we say that the greater the distance between the led legs the brighter the light due to a higher change in electric potential. 

work for electric field

Here we calculated the work of a charged particle in an electric field by munipulating our original definition of work.  

This was the set up for measuring the amps that were flowing through the battery

This is our voltage vs current graph where we obtained from the above circuit. using our data we compared our data to our neighbors data to see any differences in the graph. the slope of our graphs represent the resistance. when we found the same slope we looked at both coils and saw that both of the resistors had the same number of loops around the wooden stick.

using the graph we were able to conclude that there is a direct relationship between voltage and current. so if the current is small then the resistance is large. 

Using the set up below, we were able to obtain data recording the resistance through each coil. From this we were able to derive a relationship between resistance and length, section area, and material of resistor. 

The is the set up of how we tested each resistor. To the left are all the resistors that were tested to derive our previous relationships. 

electric field hockey

for the first level i was able to to get a goal with two charges

for level 2 i was able to get a goal with 3 positive charges

here we analyzed two particles with charge and how that affected direction

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negative point particles electrical field where field points inward

positive point particle electric field radiating outward

two plates that are equidistant from each other creating a field that does not change in magnitude between plates

here we analyzed each situation and gave an explanation

this is the excel calculations of the electrical force that a bar exerts on a point particle. using the numbers we were able to come up with a graph of distance vs electrical field. we were able to see an inverse relationship between the two. we did this again however with the point particle above the bar at different angles. 

charge repulsion

The picture on the left shows how we set up the tape and when we touched opposite ends the tips of the tap attracted together showing how positive and negative charged items react to one another.

This is a summary of what we were able to observe from the tape experiment

recording the distance between two charged particles as they got closer together we were able to create a graph of a electrical force vs separation distance and saw a power graph where where this says that the electrical force approaches zero as distance increases. 

here we showed that coulombs law accounts for the inverse relationship between distance and force.