Resistance Station № 2: Measuring the Resistivity of Pencil Lead (3/3)
This lab is based on the AP Physics 2 Course description
Here's my calculation. I measured my piece of 0.7mm lead to be 6cm long. I converted both measurements into meters, calculated the cross sectional area, and plugged these into the formula. I got the resistance of the lead by using Ohm's law (V=IR) to solve for the resistance of the circuit with and without the pencil lead and plugged this in. I got a resistivity ρ=8.21x10^-6 Ω·m.
It's worth noting how I got the units for the unfamiliar constant. This is seen at right. Basically you plug in all the units you know, and you ask yourself what units the constant would need to cancel out all the units on its side that don't appear on the other side and then you multiply this by whatever units are on the other side.
Resistance Station № 2: Measuring the Resistivity of Pencil Lead (3/3)
This lab is based on the AP Physics 2 Course description
Here's my calculation. I measured my piece of 0.7mm lead to be 6cm long. I converted both measurements into meters, calculated the cross sectional area, and plugged these into the formula. I got the resistance of the lead by using Ohm's law (V=IR) to solve for the resistance of the circuit with and without the pencil lead and plugged this in. I got a resistivity ρ=8.21x10^-6 Ω·m.
It's worth noting how I got the units for the unfamiliar constant. This is seen at right. Basically you plug in all the units you know, and you ask yourself what units the constant would need to cancel out all the units on its side that don't appear on the other side and then you multiply this by whatever units are on the other side.