Parallel Circuit Lab (Discovery)
PSI Physics – Electric Current & Circuits
Name______________________
Date__________ Period_______
All answers and data must follow the PSI Lab Report Format.
*Students should make sure to have at least one resistor in every circuit as to avoid
overheating the battery and breaking the ammeter.
Objectives
● Demonstrate the relationships of voltage, current, and resistance in parallel by building
multiple circuits.
● Calculate the resistance of each resistor.
Materials (per team)
● Battery (or DC Power Source)
● Connecting wires
● Two resistors (of unknown value)
● Knife switch
● Ammeter
● Voltmeter
Guiding Questions:
Which concepts/main ideas apply to this lab?
What equations apply to this lab?
How do you connect a voltmeter? An Ammeter?
What does it mean for a circuit to be in parallel?
In what ways will your materials be used and what will the measurements record?
How do they apply to your chosen equations?
A complete lab report must include:
❏ The materials you used and how you used them
❏ A detailed procedure describing how to setup the experiment
❏ Analysis of the data
❏ A conclusion:
❏ summarizing your results
❏ How does total resistance change when resistors are added or taken away?
❏ How does current behave in a parallel circuit? Voltage?
❏ What is the equation for resistors in parallel?
❏ Assessing any errors that may have affected your data
❏ Discussing how you might improve the experiment and / or describing what
further experiments you might like to perform on this subject
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Algebra Based Physics
Electric Current & Circuits