Scribd
Upload
54 views

Factors Affecting Resistance: 1.5.3 Ohmmeter

The document discusses factors that affect resistance in electric circuits such as length, cross-sectional area, temperature, and material resistivity. It provides an example of calculating the resistance of a 50m copper wire with a cross-sectional area of 0.13cm2, finding it to be 0.0646 ohms. Finally, it introduces the ohmmeter as an instrument used to measure resistance by disconnecting the resistor from the circuit.

Uploaded by

anothersomeguy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
54 views

Factors Affecting Resistance: 1.5.3 Ohmmeter

The document discusses factors that affect resistance in electric circuits such as length, cross-sectional area, temperature, and material resistivity. It provides an example of calculating the resistance of a 50m copper wire with a cross-sectional area of 0.13cm2, finding it to be 0.0646 ohms. Finally, it introduces the ohmmeter as an instrument used to measure resistance by disconnecting the resistor from the circuit.

Uploaded by

anothersomeguy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

16 Understandable electric circuits

Factors affecting resistance can be mathematically expressed with the


following formula:

Rr
A

Factors!affecting resistance
R r A where A is the cross-sectional area, the length, T the tem-
perature and r the resistivity (conducting ability of a material for a wire).

Note: r is a Greek letter pronounced rho (see Appendix A for a list of Greek
letters).

Example 1.3: There is a copper wire 50 m in length with a cross-sectional area


of 0.13 cm2. What is the resistance of the wire?
Solution:
50 m 5 000 cm; A 0.13 cm2;
r 1.68 6 1078 O ! m 1.68 6 1076 O ! cm (copper)

1:68 # 10$6 O ! cm5 000 cm


Rr & 0:0646 O
A 0:13 cm2

The resistance of this copper wire is 0.0646 O. Although there is resistance in


the copper wire, it is very small. A 50-m-long wire only has 0.0646 O resistance;
thus we can say that copper is a good conducting material. Copper and alu-
minium are commonly used conducting materials with reasonable price and
better conductivity.

1.5.3 Ohmmeter
Ohmmeter is an instrument that can be used to measure resistance. Its symbol
is . The resistor must be removed from the circuit to measure resistance as
shown in Figure 1.11.

E R

Figure 1.11 Measuring resistance with an ohmmeter

You might also like