How the resistance of an ammeter changed when introduced into a circuit.
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Introduction
DC MEASUREMENTS
The experiment was to find out how the resistance of both an ammeter and voltmeter, using both an ammeter and voltmeter changed when introduced into a circuit. From doing this it was found that the resistance of the ammeter decreases as both the emf and current decrease, however the avometer suggested that internal resistance increases with the voltage.
Introduction
Voltmeter’s and ammeter’s use a moving coil galvanometer to take the current and a mechanical pointer to display the current. When using analogue components an important factor to consider is full-scale deflection, which is when the maximum deflection of an analogue instrument such as a moving coil meter is reached. At present the full-scale deflection of most instruments is 10-50 μA, but to overcome this shunting resistors are placed in parallel to carry the excess current.
Middle

Results
These results were taken using the avometer, and the intention was to find Rm, from the results.
Range (V) | Max E (V) | E/2 | Rm (Ω) |
3.0 | 3.0 | 1.5 | 60x103 |
10 | 10 | 5 | 20x104 |
30 | 30 | 15 | 60x104 |
Conclusion
When using the digital voltmeter it has an error of ±1 digit. Whereas the avometer is a moving needle, which means the error is much greater as the needle can seem in two different positions from different angles.
Conclusion
In conclusion it was found that the resistances for both the ammeter and voltmeter behave differently, with the ammeter decreasing as the range is increased and the voltmeter increasing with range.
This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Electrical & Thermal Physics section.
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