The circuit is shown in the diagram below. The circuit involves a Ammeter and a Voltmeter, therefore I am left with the results in V (Voltage) and I (Current) and I can calculate the resistance using the formula I/V=R.
My Prediction
I predict that the larger the distance in the putty that the electricity has to travel, the larger the resistance, if the distance in the putty is smaller, the resistance will also be smaller.
It is possible for electricity to move through the putty, as the putty contains electrons. The shorter the distance in putty that the electricity has to travel, the less electrons the electrons will have to move through. The longer the distance of putty that the electricity must travel, the more electrons, the more resistance.
Results
For results see results sheet.
Evaluation
I think that the experiment proved my prediction, the more putty that the electricity has to travel through, the more resistance that the electricity has to take. There was only one misfit result, which occurs on the 9th test. I don’t think that this would have happened on its own, as there is only one misfit, and all the others matched my prediction. The anomalous result may have had something to do with the temperature at that point, however that is unlikely as the temperature stayed close to room temperature for the whole experiment. To have made the test fairer, I could have kept an eye on the temperature of the surrounding environment. Density also affects resistance. The one misfit we had, came in one of the last experiments we did, therefore the conductors would have entered the putty around 30 times already before the anomalous result was recorded. Density may have caused an interference with the results. In most experiments, saying that we used the same putty throughout the whole experiment would be a sign of fair test, however, if the density had interfered with the results, this may not be the case this time, if I were to do the experiment again, I would try to get accurately cut-off individual blocks of putty to do each of the experiments, but that would be much more expensive and inefficient.
Conclusion
The experiment I did matched my prediction, the longer the putty, the more resistance. I was right in thinking that resistance is affected by length.
The graph angles upwards, in positive correlation, this is also shown in the line of best fit. The graph seems to get steeper, maybe if we had done the experiment up to 20cm of putty, the resistance would be so high, no electricity would be able to get through, and the circuit would stop working, electricity would not flow.
