IV Characteristics of a filament light - 3D practical for GCSE Physics

This is a teacher or student controlled 3d experiment that allows you to plot the IV characteristics of a lightbulb. That is, you can plot how the current changes when you change the voltage (The ‘I’ is for current, and the V is for voltage). This depends on the resistance of the bulb which changes depending on the voltage. Effectively the bulb gets hotter and hotter as the voltage increases until it is eventually white hot. As the temperature of the metal filament gets hotter its resistance changes.

The user can control the power supply and the variable resistor. The user is free to move anywhere within the laboratory in order to interact with the apparatus.

You can try a practical from our website.

The package is perfect for demonstrating this experiment in front of the class but can also be used by students in a variety of ways:

• Directly to prepare for a laboratory experiment by familiarising them with the equipment to be used and the methodology of the experiment.

• As revision for an experiment that has previously been performed in the laboratory.

• For home-learning where there is no access to a laboratory.

• To make up for an experiment missed due to sickness.

• As a personal experience of an experiment normally only performed by the teacher in front of the class.

Downloads include: a PowerPoint giving full instructions including a video, background on the Physics and the practical application in a zip file. There is a link to an online version if you prefer not to install.

The Virtual Physics Laboratory of which this simulation is a part, has the Association for Science Education’s Green Tick of Approval. More information can be found on our website.

I’ve found your software very useful when a concept comes up with pupils and I have to demonstrate something really quickly without having the time to set up a formal experiment for them. The graphics are great and I really like the ability to move around the classroom and observe the experiment from different aspects. I am far more likely to go to one of your interactive experiments if it’s demonstrating something that we don’t have equipment for.

Andrew McPhee Wellington School

I thought that the controls were pretty easy to get used to and the detail in the apparatus was excellent being able to zoom in and see the set up of the multi-meter and read scales, being careful of parallax. This type of software is most useful in experiments which can’t be done in the lab like the gravity on the moon or where the equipment is too expensive or difficult to use like the Millikan Oil drop.

Physics Scholar Coordinator.

Licence
This product is for a single user and is for personal and classroom. Copying any part of this resource is forbidden and violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Purchasing and downloading this product is your consent to these conditions.