Lab Report four sample for Physics 204. Includes extended descriptions for Introduction, Methods, Calculations, Discussion, and Conclusion to help ensure full marks in your reports. Please beware plagiarism as you look the document over and for any questions, refer to your TA.
Magnetic fields are a crucial but invisible part of our every day lives. They can be found
in and generated by many daily household appliances such as electric fans, hairdryers, and most
electric appliances. One of its most evident uses is in its ability to cause electric current to be
generated and flow through an electric conductor. The process by which this occurs is called
electromagnetic induction. The particular use of electromagnetic induction can be found in
electrical generators and electrical transformers in our daily lives. Electrical generators can be
found in a larger scale in power plants and, in a smaller scale, in communities that experience
load shedding. By being able to control electromagnetic induction, we can manipulate current
and generate it to power the many electronic devices we use in our lives.
Electromagnetic induction is defined as when an electromotive force is produced across
an electrical conductor in a changing magnetic field. The main idea behind this lab is to learn
how to measure any induced currents produced by a changing magnetic field.
Procedure:
First, Activity 1 was conducted by connecting a coil with a galvanometer in series to
serve as a loop. Next a permanent magnet was used to change the magnetic flux through the
loop. An ammeter was used to measure the current generated as the bar magnet was inserted into
the coil. The maximum amount of current generated was recorded and the behavior of the
Galvanometer needle in response to different actions was also written down (Data). A practice
calculation was also done to find the Io from the Irms measured from the Ammeter (Data and
Calculations)
, 2
To do Experiment 1, essentially, a time varying current was passed through the large coil
apparatus and using a smaller search coil, the strength of the magnetic field created was
measured by assessing the induced EMF. The steps taken to do so were as follows: first, the
large coil was connected to the ammeter and the Variac. The Variac controlled the amount of
current passed into the coil which was measured by the Ammeter. Next, the oscilloscope was
used to measure the time varying voltage in the smaller coil – the search coil. The Variac was set
so that the current in the large coil showed up as 1 amp in the Ammeter. Finally, the
“MEASURE” function on the oscilloscope was used to find the maximum amplitude of the EMF
generated in the smaller coil, the value for which was noted down.
For Experiment 2, the magnitude of the magnetic field in the center of the large coil was
measured as a function of distance in the z direction, as shown in Figure 1. To do so, first the
search coil was removed from the central position on the Aluminum platform and placed at 5 cm
intervals lengthwise and along the width of the platform. The induced EMF was measured at
each of these intervals using the same method used in Experiment 1, which was then used to find
the strength of the magnetic field of the larger coil. The peak value of the EMF in the
oscilloscope measured at each position was used to represent the peak magnetic field at those
locations. Lastly, all the measured values were noted down alongside their respective positions
on the Aluminum platform.
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