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 © njctl.org Algebra Based Physics Electric Current & Circuits