Resistance of a Nichrome wire.

I predict that as the wire gets longer, the amps will go down. I also predict then the potential difference or voltage will go up. I predict that the thicker the wire, the higher amps there are, and the lower the voltage will be. This means that the resistance should be higher as the wire gets thicker.

My predictions are based on that the electrons in the metals are loose. This means that they can flow down the wire with ease. This is electricity. When the area of a wire (the thickness) is bigger, the electrons have more space to flow through, and therefore can flow through the wire with more ease.

My results of the experiment

Results using the thin nichrome wire

Results using the medium-thick nichrome wire

Results using the thick nichrome wire

I recorded the results into 3 different tables.

As you can see in the graphs, the amps are higher as the length of the wire is low, and the voltage is higher as the length of the wire is high. You can also see that the thickest wire produces the least resistance.

I have found out that if a wire is longer, there will be more voltage, and fewer amps. This means the there will be more resistance.

You can see this, because both the voltage and resistance lines are going up and the amps going down.

The results also show that a thicker wire will show more amps and less voltage, meaning a lower resistance.

I can conclude that a shorter, thinner wire will produce the highest resistance, however a long, thick wire will produce the least resistance. This fits the theory that the electrons have more space to flow through, as the long and thick wire is bigger than the short thin wire. I can see that my predictions match my results very closely, as I predicted everything correctly.

I think that the procedure used to collect the data worked well, however it was hard to keep the wire as straight as possible, and it was also hard to get the correct position on the ruler with the crocodile clip, as the wire was slacked. It could have been improved by having a larger starting current, as that would have produced more accurate results. I could have also repeated the experiment more times, to get a more accurate average. Also we could have used more sensitive equipment to try and get a more exact reading. It would have been better if the wire was perfectly straight on a detailed ruler, to get the best results. Further from this work, it could have been better to investigate factors like temperature, power supply voltage and materials.