Week 1

Monday:

1.       What is the class format?

The majority of the class format involves labs, blogs, quizzes, and exams. There are a total of 30 quizzes worth 10 points each; 15 discussions worth 10 points each; 15 blog reports worth 20 points each; 2 midterms worth 50 points each; and one final exam worth 150 points. The main goal for each student is to get as many points possible for a high grade.

2.       What are the important safety rules?

a.       Don’t work alone on energized electrical equipment

b.      Power must be turned off during assembly and disassembling. Discharge any high voltage points to ground

c.       Make measurements in live circuits with well insulated probes and one hand behind your back. Don’t allow any part of your body to touch any part of the circuit or equipment connected to the circuit

d.      Don’t touch electrical equipment while standing on wet floor or metal floor

e.      Don’t handle wet, damp, or ungrounded electrical equipment

f.        Jewelry such as rings and watches can be hazardous

g.       Don’t try to catch a falling part of a live circuit

h.      Don’t touch two pieces of equipment simultaneously

i.         Don’t touch even one wire of a circuit; it may be “hot”

j.        Avoid heat surfaces

k.       Be cautious when handling components

l.         Ask instructor to check your circuit before applying power

3.       Does current kill?

Yes

4.       How do you read color codes? (Video)

5.       What is the tolerance? Give an example from your experiment.

      Tolerance is the variance of a resistor. We read the bands on the resistor to determine its theoretical value and then used the multimeter to determine its actual value to compare them. 

6.       Prove all your resistors are within the tolerance range

Theoretical	Actual	Tolerance: Y/N
2.72 k Ω	2.71 k Ω	Y
15 k Ω	14.9 k Ω	Y
2.2 M Ω	2.2 M Ω	Y
150 k Ω	147.5 k Ω	Y
8.2 M Ω	8.36 M Ω	Y
360 Ω	358 Ω	Y
47 Ω	47.5 Ω	Y
15 k Ω	1.479 k Ω	Y
121 Ω	119 Ω	Y
8210 Ω	816 k Ω	N

Wednesday:

1.       What is the difference between measuring the voltage and current using a DMM? Why?

The difference between measuring the voltage and current using a DMM depends on where you plug in the cords on the DMM and which settings you’re using. To measure the current, you have to break the loop whereas for voltage, you don’t.

2.       How many different voltage values can you get from the power supply? Can each one of them be changed to any value?

You can get three different values; one is fixed and the other two can range anywhere from 0 V to 25 V.

3.       Practice circuit results (video) & (photo)

4.       How do you experimentally prove Ohm’s Law? Provide measurement results. Compare calculated and measured voltage, current, and resistance values. (Experimental setup photo)

We measured the voltage and current using the DMM and they should be linearly dependent. As voltage increases, current increases. We used a 100 Ω resistor and a 150 k Ω resistor. The chart below summarizes our findings after conducting five trials for each resistor. The larger the resistor value is, the more/less the current is at a fixed voltage

100 Ω Resistor

Trial	Voltage Measured	Ampere Measured
1	2.69 V	24.4 mA
2	3.51 V	31.2 mA
3	6.16 V	55.1 mA
4	6.81 V	60.8 mA
5	7.24 V	65.5 mA

150 kΩ Resistor

Trial	Voltage Measured	Ampere Measured
1	2.06 V	0.0143 mA
2	2.83 V	0.0196 mA
3	3.81 V	0.0259 mA
4	4.29 V	0.0295 mA
5	5.02 V	0.0343 mA

5.       Rube Goldberg circuit (video).

Friday:

1.       Draw the circuit diagram for the Rube Goldberg set-up.

2.       How can you implement this setup into a Rube Goldberg machine? Drawing required.

We could use the motor to start a new chain of reaction. Our current idea is to create a pulley system by using a photo sensor and a motor. By shining a light on the photo sensor the motor will begin to turn. Around the motor is a string that will lift up the flags.