A Useful Experiment for Teaching Resistance of a Wire as a Function of Temperature

Abstract

We have developed a new simple experiment for the students where they can get a quantitative measure of how the resistance of a wire depends on the temperature of the wire. The only materials required are a copper wire coil, a DC voltage source, a digital ohmmeter, and a calorimeter with an analog thermometer. The students discover a linear relationship between temperature and resistance. The temperature coefficient is easily calculated from the slope of the graph and compared with the standard values. The experiment, although simple to perform and feasible with minimal equipment, does provide reasonable results and is appropriate for either high school students or an undergraduate physics laboratory. Also, the work would be of interest to teachers in an introductory-level physics course.