Resistance of a wire.

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Resistance of a wire

Introduction

In this piece of coursework, I have been set the task of investigating factors that affect the resistance of a wire. There are many things that affect the resistance of a wire but I have only got the chance to do one of these. The one I will choose will depend on it being the most effective and on its ease to do.

Firstly, I will give an explanation of how resistance works. Resistance is when travelling electrons in a wire collide with the atoms of the wire. The collisions between the electrons and the atoms cause the electrons to move slower, which in effect causes resistance. So, resistance is how hard it is to move electrons through a wire.

Now, the factors that affect the resistance of a wire are going to be described.

Firstly, temperature is a factor. If the wire is heated, the atoms will move around more because there will be an increase in energy. This would cause more collisions between the atoms and the electrons. The increase in collisions would cause the resistance to rise.

This would be very hard to do, because the equipment needed to do this experiment effectively has not been given to us.

Secondly, the width of the wire is a factor. This will cause resistance to decrease because of the increase in space in the wire. The increase in space means that there is more space for the electrons to flow freely because there would be fewer collisions with atoms.

I could do this by using different widths of a wire; for example thin, medium, or thick copper could be used.

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Thirdly, the material used would be a factor. If the material being used contains atoms with a large number of electrons on the outer shells, then this means there are more electrons available. So, in theory, if the material has a large number of atoms, there should be less resistance, because of the higher number of electrons .If the atoms in the wire are closely packed, then this will cause an increase in resistance, due to frequent collisions.

To do this I would use the same length and width of many different wire materials, using the same amount of voltage ...

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