Lab Quiz 1

Nathaniel Traktman

February 2018

1 Problem 1

Assume a ±5% tolerance

1.1 a

A 10k resistor is Brown Black Orange Gold

This translates to (1) (0) (103 ) (±5%)

1.2 b

A 20k resistor is Red Black Orange Gold

This translates to (2) (0) (103 ) (±5%)

2 Problem 2

2.1 a

An ideal voltmeter has infinite internal resistance. It is attached in parallel

with a resistive circuit element we want to measure voltage drop over(let’s say

1
a resistor), so if it drew current it would affect that voltage (changing current

directly changes voltage by Ohm’s law).

Of course an actual voltmeter has to draw some current or it wouldn’t be

able to measure anything, but we are talking ideals here.

2.2 b

An ideal ammeter has no internal resistance so as not to affect the amount of

Vtotal
current drawn from the voltage/current sources. By Ohm’s law (I = Rtotal )

you can see that because an ammeter is connected in series with the resistance

measured if it had a resistance it would decrease the amount of current drawn.

Again, an actual ammeter has some resistance.

3 Problem 3

3.1 a

Voc can be calculated with simple voltage division.

V2 = 15V ( 10Ω
20Ω ) = 7.5V

So Voc = 7.5V , which isn’t too surprising because the two equal resistors in

series should split the voltage equally.

3.2 b

We could do something similar for this one, but let’s do a bit of mesh analysis

instead.

I1 is the large loop CW, I2 is the small loop CW

10I1 + 10(I1 − I2 ) = 15

2
 10I2 + 10(I2 − I1 ) = 0

Simplified:

20I1 − 10I2 = 15

−10I1 + 20I2 = 0

I1 , I2 = 1mA, 0.5mA

So:

VRL = 5V

3.3 c

We already have our Thevenin (open circuit) voltage from part A; VT h = 7.5V

Now all we need is the Thevenin resistance. To do that we short the circuit

across where we measured Voc and calculate the circuit current.

V 15
Isc = R1 = 10000 = 1.5mA. This, incidentally, is the Norton equivalent

current.
VT h 7.5V
RT h = IN = 1.5mA = 5k

Putting our load (RL ) in series with our Thevenin equivalent circuit we’ll

see if it matches our calculations in part B.

V RL = V T h ( RT R L
h +RL
)

= (7.5)( 10
15 )

= 5V

Which is exactly what we expected.