Investigating the factors that affect the Resistance of a Wire
GCSE Physics Resistance of a Wire Before starting my coursework I have decided to chose a factor that will affect the resistance of a wire. I shall do this by going through all of the factors that affect the resistance of a wire and how I would measuring each factor to find out which would be the most effective and easiest factor to measure. Below is a list of factors and reasons why they affect the resistance of a wire. From this list of factors I shall only pick one factor to investigate. To explain the how the factors would affect the resistance of a wire I have drawn a diagram to show how resistance occurs. WIRE ATOMS= ELECTRONS= Resistance occurs when the electrons travelling along the wire collide with the atoms of the wire. These collisions slow down the flow of electrons causing resistance. Resistance is a measure of how hard it is to move the electrons through the wire. Factors 1.Temperature : If the wire is heated up the atoms in the wire will start to vibrate because of their increase in energy. ... This increase in collisions means that there will be an increase in resistance. ... Material : The type of material will affect the amount of free electrons which are able to flow through the wire. ... If the material has a high number of atoms there will be high number of electrons causing a lower resistance because of the increase in the number of electrons. Also if the atoms in the material are closely packed then the electrons will have more frequent collisions and the resistance will increase. ... Wire length : If the length of the wire is increased then the resistance will also increase as the electrons will have a longer distance to travel and so more collisions will occur.