Experiment No.1 - Resistors

The First experiment was to identify and test 6 different resistors. First I worked out their values by their colour bands, then measured the resistances of each one using a multimeter.

After I worked out the 6 resistances I chose two resistors and measured the resistances in series and parallel,.

Resistor 1 = 20.1 ohms

Resistor 2 = 330 ohms

Resistance in series

Rt = R1 + R2

20.1 + 330 = 350.1 ohms

Measured = 349 ohms

Resistance in parallel

1/Rt = 1/R1 + 1/R2

1/(1/20.1 + 1/350.1) = 19.009 ohms

Measured = 18.8 ohms

This shows that the resistance is greater when connected in series. This is becasue when connected in parallel the resistance is always going to be less than the lowest resistance.