Study on how different parameters can affect the resistance of a wire.

Introduction

This investigation is to study how different parameters can affect the resistance of a wire. I will be testing this by using a number of different variables, which include the type of material of the wire, the length of the wire and the diameter of the wire. With these changes I will hopefully be able to prove or disprove my hypothesis:

Planning:

The hypothesis of this investigation is:

Resistance in the wire becomes higher as the length of the wire increases, the resistance varies depending on what material the wire is made out of, the resistance is becomes lower as the diameter (SWG) of the wire increases.

In this investigation I will predict to see whether this hypothesis is stated true or false. In this early stage of the investigation I have predicted that the hypothesis stated it true.

This is because as a wire increase length electrons travelling along will encounter more atoms of the to pass thought making the resistance increase unlike in a short piece of wire where there would be fewer atoms making the electrons pass through quicker equalling the resistance to be low.

The diagram above shows that a long piece of wire contains more atoms then a small piece of wire making it harder for electrons to pass increasing the resistance

The diagram above shows that a short piece of wire contains less atoms then a long piece of wire making it easier for electrons to pass making the resistance stay low.

The resistance of a wire depends on the material used as some wires contain a large sum of atoms compared to other wires contain only a few amount of atoms. Making it either harder or easier for the electrons to pass through the wirer. Wires with more electrons on the atoms outer shill have less resistance as more elections can pass though. A denser material will have more atoms per m² in the wire. Therefore there will be more electron-atom collisions, which makes it harder for the electrons to pass thought the wire, which equals more resistance. The diagram below shows this:

The diagram above shows a wire containing a lot of resistance as it has a lot of atoms making it harder for electrons to pass.

The diagram above shows a wire with only a small amount of resistance, as it does not contain a lot atom so electrons can pass thorough easily.

The diameter of the wire can also affect the resistance of the wire because if a wire has a large crossectional area i.e. a thick wire there is more room for the electrons to pass through, thus there will be less resistance per electron. This would happen in opposite ways to a thin wire. A wire with a small diameter would make it harder for electrons to move though, as there would be less space for them to pass making the resistance increase.

The diagram above shows a very thin wire. It shows that a small wire has not got a lot of room for all the electrons to fit easily though making the resistance high.

The diagram above shows a very thick wire. It shows that a thick wire has a lot of room for electrons to fit easily through making the resistance low.

These are the reasons why I think that the hypothesis may be true. I will now continue with the investigation to prove if they hypothesis is right or wrong.