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How Does Length Affect Resistance?

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How does Length affect resistance? Coursework Aim To find out how the length of a wire can affect resistance. Factors affecting resistance  Temperature  Length of wire  Thickness  Type Resistance is a force which opposes the flow of an electric current around a circuit so that energy is required to push the charged particles around the circuit. Resistance is measured in ohms. The symbol for an ohm is Ω Here is the rule for working out the resistance of a circuit: V/I = R or V - Volts I - current R - resistance Variables • length of wire • thickness • type of wire • current • voltmeter • temperature Dependant variables • length Prediction As we are …show more content…

The smaller length of 20cm has a resistance of 1.01 (Ω) and the longer wire of 100cm has the resistance of 4.86 (Ω) which is clearly higher. Trends and Patterns The pattern/ trend I can see is that the longer the wire the higher the resistance or the shorter the wire the lower the resistance. Science and Detailed Science explanations The longer the length of the wire the higher the resistance. I think this because the longer the wire the more atoms and so the more likely the electrons are going to collide with the atoms. So if the length is doubled the resistance should also double. This is because if the length is doubled the numbers of atoms will also double resulting in twice the number of collisions slowing the electrons down and increasing the resistance. My graph should show that the length is proportional to the resistance. Electrons collide with atoms more often in a long wire than they do in a short wire. This means that the resistance in a wire increases as: The length of the wire increases. Mathematical analysis The graph of my experiment is approximately a straight line through the origin, which means R is almost proportional to L. This means that if the length is 40cm, and resistance is 2 which in my case is almost that (1.92), then if length is doubled to 80cm, resistance also doubles to 4 which in my case

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