Non-Ohmic Resistance Lab (Discovery)
AP Physics 2 – Electric Current & Circuits
Name______________________
Date__________ Period_______
All answers and data must follow the PSI Lab Report Format.
Objectives
To gain an understanding of what non-ohmic resistance is and why circuits with non-ohmic
resistors do not follow Ohm’s law.
Materials (per team)
● Battery
● Connecting wires
● Ammeter
● (Small) Light Bulbs
● Voltmeter
Guiding Questions:
What is the relationship between current and voltage under Ohm’s Law?
How would you predict the outcomes of the current and voltage measurements if there is a light
bulb in the circuit? Does this new set up (current versus voltage) obey Ohm’s Law?
Which values would you measure to investigate non-ohmic resistance?
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
❏ Answering the questions:
❏ How does current usually behave in a series circuit? How did it behave
here?
❏ Why do you think lightbulbs behaved differently than regular resistors?
Think about what happened to the lightbulb the longer it was connected
in the circuit.
❏ 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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Circuits
AP Physics 2
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