Circuit Lab B/C

[ignorantcircuitboi]

Although I know this is incorrect, during the competition we ended up putting the voltmeter in series with the various resistors. When put into parallel we got a reading of 0V but got positive values when in series... does anyone know why this would be the case?

[Schrodingerscat]

Although I know this is incorrect, during the competition we ended up putting the voltmeter in series with the various resistors. When put into parallel we got a reading of 0V but got positive values when in series... does anyone know why this would be the case?

Assuming you connected everything as you say, that would only make sense to me if the resistors were either somehow shorting or had too low of resistance to generate a measurable voltage in your circuit.

Edit: did all of the resistors read zero volts when connected in series and measured in parallel?

[ignorantcircuitboi]

I am not sure about all but the 3 out of the 5 I tested did so. I am fairly sure that all connections were solid as clean alligator clips were used.

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

I have a question. How do I solve the following question (like step by step process)?

I am given the following materials:
a voltmeter
1 known resistor with resistance of 1,000 ohms
5 unknown resistors
a breadboard
alligator clips
a 3 V battery


How do I find the resistance value of each of the unknown resistors?

This was my approach, which turned out to be blatantly wrong:
First, I connected all the resistors in series. My thought process was that since I knew the resistance of one resistor, I could just use the voltmeter to find the find the voltage across the known resistor, and then I could find the current across that resistor. That current should be the same as the total current and the current across all the resistors because the circuit was in series. Using this, I could then measure the voltage across all the unknown resistors. Since I knew the current value, if I knew the voltage across the resistors, I could find all the resistance values.

Then, I put the leads of the voltmeter on the ends of the resistors (so I connected it in parallel). But the reading for the voltage was 0, so I could not find the value of the resistors. I think my thought process is wrong, does anyone know what I should do? Thanks!

Did you attach the battery

[ElPotato]

I am not sure about all but the 3 out of the 5 I tested did so. I am fairly sure that all connections were solid as clean alligator clips were used.

Maybe the voltage across the resistors were so low that it did not register on the voltmeter's scale? Was this at Cornell b/c the Cornell Circuits lab had a similar setup and I remember one of the resistors having a really high resistance. Perhaps that threw off the measurements?

[satvik03]

Yeah could be. I had a similar issue. I'm trash at lab and average about 4% on the lab section lol. I tried to put the resistors in series, and measure the voltage across the resistors by putting the leads on the ends of circuit. I'm pretty sure I gotta learn how to measure voltage drop correctly.

[satvik03]

Uh what happens if you place the black lead closer to the voltage source and the red lead on the other side of the resistor (when measuring voltage across a resistor)? This should just give the negative value for voltage, but the magnitude should be the same right?

[mdv2o5]

Uh what happens if you place the black lead closer to the voltage source and the red lead on the other side of the resistor (when measuring voltage across a resistor)? This should just give the negative value for voltage, but the magnitude should be the same right?

Yes. Assuming your black lead is plugged into the COM or ground port on your meter and the red lead is plugged into the port for DC volts, the meter measures the potential of the red lead relative to the black lead (Vred - Vblack).

[biz11]

What types of questions de they ask on transformers? Almost everything would require knowledge of inductance which they say you don't need to know.

[Pastaman202]

At one of my invites, there was a switch that connected with 2 terminals, and you are given a capacitor, battery, lamp and resistor. The question was to set up a schematic diagram of how when the switch is connected to one terminal, the light bulb starts dim and get brighter and brighter, while the other starts bright and gets dimmer and dimmer. Does anyone know how to set this up? P.S. this was a div B test. Thanks!