Purpose: Construct a circuit from a circuit diagram and use an ammeter to correctly measure current.

Materials:

-1.5 V Cell

-Various Bulbs

-Connecting wires

-Ammeter

Procedure:

1. Construct the following circuit, using one of the light bulbs
2. Close the circuit briefly and measure the current. Open the current. Record the measurement in your data table.
3. Repeat step 2 with the remaining bulbs

Observations:

At the beginning we didn’t realize you could screw in the bulb so we had that as a problem very briefly.

We noticed that the longer we let the ammeter’s hand adjust the current lowers slightly.

Results:

What did you find out?

Which circuit had the largest current?

The large bulb had the largest current

Which circuit had the smallest current?

The oval bulb had the smallest current

What is the purpose of the switch in this circuit?

To control the flow of electrons

When you measure an unknown current, you should start with the meter set to a large current scale and then decrease the scale. Explain the purpose of starting with a higher setting.

Because if there is a high voltage you could find the current faster and also more accurate while if the current was quite low you could adjust accordingly rather than starting off with the ammeters hand going off the scale right away.