Showing posts with label DC Circuits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC Circuits. Show all posts

Monday, April 6, 2020

General Physics II Graphs: RL Voltages

Because Canvas is defective and often does not properly copy graphs and images from one shell to another, here is another set of graphs used in one of my online tests or quizzes:

Version 1:


Version 2:


Version 3:
Version 4 (version 1 but for twice the time)


Version 5 (version 2 but twice the time)


These are voltage vs time graphs for an RL series circuit and a battery.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Physics II Images: Two Resistors, a Battery, and a Switch

Because Canvas is so bad at copying images from one shell to another, here is another set of images used in one of my quizzes or tests:

Version 1:
Version 2:

Version 3:

All three consist of two resistors in parallel with each other, and a switch which connects or disconnects the second resistor from the circuit.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Physics II Images: 4 Bulbs Connected Together

Because Canvas is so bad at copying images from one shell to another with any consistency, here is another set of images used in one of my quizzes or tests:

This shows 4 lightbulbs connected to a battery as a circuit diagram. There are other versions of this diagram.

Version 2:


Friday, March 13, 2020

Light Bulb Experiment: DC Voltage?

In continuation of my previous post on this topic, I have set up my lightbulb with a 2.2 V DC voltage for 10 minutes and measured the resulting output voltage and current:

Over time, the current declines somewhat--exponentially, in fact--whereas the voltage measured across the bulb remains ~constant. The implication here is that the resistance of the bulb slowly increases with time, presumably until it reaches some quasi-steady-state temperature (and hence resistance).

The implication for this is that the "linear" regimes of the lightbulb's voltage-current curves aren't actually entirely linear. That said, they appear to be reasonably close to linear over the short-term (~2-10 seconds) considered in the ramps yesterday, at least as observed using a DC signal. In fact, I will close by posting a set of four more images, to compare the upper/lower linear regions for short time ramps to longer time ramps.
Here is the upper linear region linear fit with a 0.002 Hz frequency (500 s period):

And here is the lower linear region fit, for the same data:

Now let's look at a 0.2 Hz signal (5 s period), beginning again with the upper linear region:

And the lower linear region:

That's it for today. Next week, God willing, I would like to start looking at the intensity output for the light bulb. Preview question: if we treat the resistance as constant when the bulb is "on", we should expect to get what type of graph for intensity vs voltage and intensity vs current?

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Light Bulb Experiment: Some Observations

I've connected a simple incandescent lightbulb to a PASCO 850 Interface setup which I'm using to provide power and also to measure current and voltage outputs, as well as a voltage sensor for the lightbulb itself. Additionally, I've connected a High Intensity Light Sensor to the PASCO 850 Interface to measure the light's intensity while I am doing this. The image below shows the basic signal generator information along with the Voltage sensor reading as a function of current output (data from the light sensor isn't shown).



I want to highlight a few points here, and maybe (no promises) add some follow-up posts.

First, note my general set-up: my voltage output is a positive ramp with an amplitude of 2.4 V, although there is some internal resistance in the wires and hence the voltage drop across the bulb itself is more like 2.3 V. I have a voltage limit of 2.5 volts--this is the limit specified by the light bulb which I am using, although with my ramp settings, I should not ever see this voltage output. The Ramp repeats itself every 2 seconds (0.5 Hz frequency).

There appears to be two approximately linear regimes for this bulb, with a pair of nonlinear transient regimes. There is also a "line" from "top" to "bottom", but this is an artifact of the ramp's repeating itself. The first "nonlinear" part of the graph is when the bulb is first turned on, and thus the filament rapidly heats up and its resistance increases. This region is the curving "tail" to the lower right of the higher linear region, and I will set this aside for now (it can be easily selected around by introducing a short delay to the data collection from when the signal is turned on).

The two "linear" regimes represent when the voltage is too low for the bulb to glow, < ~0.25 V, and again when the voltage is strong enough for the entire filament to be glowing, > ~0.9 V. The "S"-shaped transient region connecting the two is when the filament begins to glow, during which the slope (and hence resistance) actually increases somewhat, compared even to "hot" vs "cold" resistance (everything outside of the "tail" is basically "hot" resistance, albeit not steady state).

For what it is worth, the "resistance" (measured by taking the slope of the linear portion) is about 15.1 Ω for the upper "on" region and about 2.2 Ω for the lower region with these settings. Two other notes here: these values change somewhat if I change the ramp frequency, and also neither "linear" region is actually entirely linear. To the first note, I can offer this graph taken at 0.1 Hz:


The slopes are now 14.9 Ω and 1.76 Ω, respectively. These differences, especially the former, may seem small, but they are repeatable.

And for the second point, I will want to look at in a future post. Hint: it involves turning off the ramp and looking at just a DC signal.

Physics II Graphs: An Ohmic Resistor

Because Canvas is so bad at copying graphs, here is another set of quiz graphs:

Graph 1:
Graph 2:

Graph 3:

All three of these graphs are for the same ideally Ohmic resistor. Pay attention to units!