ELG 2133 LAB 2 RESISTOR NETWORKS

OBJECTIVES
1. To verify experimentally the design concept of a voltage divider. 2. To design and build a simple analog ammeter based on the current-divider concept. 3. To verify experimentally the Thevenin equivalent circuit and the maximal power transfer property.

PREPARATIONS
1. Read sections 3.3, 3.4, 5.4 and 5.6 of your textbook by Dorf and Svoboda. 2. Read and understand the experiment procedure below. 3. Answer the preparation questions.

PARTS AND EQUIPMENT

1 voltage/current source. 1 trim-pot (variable resistor) with a range of 0-500k 2 analog multimeters. three 1K resistors.

PROCEDURE
A. Voltage Divider
Preparation Questions: By assuming the internal resistance of the voltmeter to be infinite and that of the battery to be negligible, P1) design a value for R1 in Fig. 1a such that V2 =0.5V P2) determine V2 in Fig. 1b for R2 =1K, R3 =10K and the value of R1 designed in Question 1.

Experiment Steps: 1. Set up the circuit in Fig. 1a. 2. Verify by measurement the design of Question P1 above. Discuss and explain any discrepancies.
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3. Set up the circuit in Fig. 1b, where R2 is loaded by a parallel resistor R3 . 4. Verify by measurement the result of preparation question P2 above. Questions: A1) Comment on the effects of R3 on the voltage divider as it ranges from 0 to . A2) If R3 represents the internal resistance of your voltmeter that is used to measure the voltage in Fig. 1a, do an adjustment to find out the corrected value of v2. A3) Determine the range of the impedance (resistance in this case) of the voltmeter so that the measured value does not vary more than 0.1% due to the loading of the voltmeter.

B. Current Divider and the Ammeter

Your TAs will have set up a station demonstrating how a simple analog ammeter can be built from a d'Arsonval Meter and shunt resistors. You should understand the basic principle based on the current divider (such as the supplemental reading emailed to you recently). Obtain enough information from the station (or TA) to allow you to do the following. 1) Determine the range of currents that the setup can measure accurately. Justify your answer. 2) Give a design that will also include measurements whose range is one decade higher?

C. Thevenin's Theorem

Fig. 2 Preparation Questions: P3) Design a value of R0 in Fig. 2 in order to obtain V0 =0.6V P4) Apply Thevenin's theorem to determine the internal source resistance Rth as seen by the load R0 . P5) Design R0 for maximum power dissipated in it. Call this resistance Ropt. P6) Select 3 or 4 resistance values on both sides of Ropt Compute the corresponding power dissipation of R0 and plot the power p as a function of R0 Some suggested values are 0.05Ropt , 0.1Ropt, 0.5Ropt, 0.9Ropt, 1.1 Ropt , 2Ropt, 5Ropt, 10Ropt, 50Ropt . See if they show the drop-off of power clearly on either side of Ropt. Choose other R0 values if you deem necessary.

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Experiments: 1. Set up the circuit with a voltage source of 5V as shown in Fig. 2. Use a variable resistor to implement R0 . 2. Adjust R0 to obtain V0 =0.6V. Verify your result with your preparation (do any adjustment for loading effect where required). 3. Select a range of different R0 values. For each R0 setting, measure the corresponding voltage V0 and current I 0 . (do any adjustment for loading effect where required). 4. Plot the adjusted V0 vs adjusted I 0 on the graph provided. 5. Determine the equivalent Thevenin voltage ( Vth ) and resistance ( Rth ). Verify these values against your preparation. Explain and/or justify any discrepancies. 6. Compute the power dissipated in the resistor, and plot it against the resistance R0 . 7. Determine the value of R0 that gives the largest power dissipation. Does this value agree with your design? Explain and justify your observation. .

Suggestion: If you finish this lab earlier and the instructor has also given you the instruction of the next lab on oscilloscope and function generators, please take the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the oscilloscope and the function generator.

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