Investigating the Factors that may affect the Resistance of a Piece of Wire

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Investigating the Factors that may affect the Resistance of a Piece of Wire

        The reason for performing this experiment is to investigate the factors that may affect the resistance of a piece of wire.  I began by doing some research about the factors that may affect the resistance of a piece of wire so that I could perform a safe and practical procedure.  (See “Textbooks”).

Firstly I started to carry out an experiment to find out firstly which wire with the bigger resistance, (constantan or copper), and then I had to find out which thickness of wire would be best suited to this experiment, 28 swg, 30 swg or 32 swg.  For example, I may choose copper because it has a greater resistance and 28 swg thickness of the wire because the resistance of the wire is not too big and not too small.  As the thickness of the wire increases the resistance increases, and as the thickness of the wire decreases the resistance decreases.  

Planning

Variables

There are a number of variables that I could use for my experiment, such as:

∙        Changing the voltage.

∙        Changing the current.

∙        Changing the thickness of the wire.

∙        Changing the length of the wire.

∙        Changing the material of the wire.

∙        Changing the temperature.

        These variables are all viable to use except changing the temperature of the wire because this is very difficult and time consuming.  Changing the length of the wire is very accurate and changing the current is easily done because I would have to slide the variable resistor back and forth to change it.  Changing the thickness of the wire is one of the most reliable variables because temperature, current or voltage can affect it.  

Results of my pilot experiments

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Here are the results for my pilot experiment:

The Material

Firstly I had to find out which material I should use for my experiment copper and constantan.

I decided to use constantan because it has a bigger resistance and therefore I will get a larger range of results

The Width of Constantan

I would use a size 28 (swg) for the actual experiment because it is not too small and not too big.  It also does not give off any heat so not as much heat would be lost in the experiment and my results will ...

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